Personal injury news 05/12/2006
Negligent bosses to foot the bill for work accidents
Businesses throughout the country are being warned to clean up their act after it emerged that the NHS in Scotland will charge employers whose staff require hospital care because of work accidents.
The new scheme is due to be implemented on January 27th 2007 and will see negligent bosses being billed £159 for the cost of any ambulance journey that their employee requires, as much as £620 for being admitted to hospital and 505 per day if outpatient treatment is necessary. The total cost that an employer could be liable for, however, will be limited to £37,100.
The scheme has been hailed as a milestone by trade union groups who see it as an important step on the road to cutting the huge number of Scottish accidents at work that occur every year. Throughout the course of 2006, thousands of people have suffered personal injuries and many have also died as the result of negligent bosses who have failed to take the health and safety of their staff seriously.
It is hoped that 2007 will be vastly different as the new initiative, entitled the NHS Scotland Injury Costs Recovery Scheme, forces employers to ensure they provide their workers with a safe environment.
Managers in all employment sectors will come under the jurisdiction of the scheme and construction site bosses, factory owners as well as office managers are being advised to brush up on the current safety regulations to ensure their staff stay clear of accidents in the workplace.
1999 saw the introduction of a similar scheme that required motor insurance companies to pick up the tab when their customers were left with personal injuries as the result of car accidents. It is said that this now supplies the NHS with at least 6 million a year.
Ministers have predicted that the new scheme will provide Scottish hospitals with even more cash and a figure as high as £15 million is being touted. Such a massive financial injection into the NHS should, therefore, result in reduced waiting lists and an improved level of treatment for patients.
Not surprisingly, the British Medical Association has welcomed the news that the initiative is to be introduced in the next few months and a spokeswoman told reporters, "It would seem reasonable for the NHS to try and recover those costs it can which are caused by negligence and acts of omission by employers."
But with an employer's insurance premium set to rise dramatically if one of their staff receives personal injuries in an accident at work, some unscrupulous bosses are likely to want to protect their financial interests.
The British Medical Association warned of the dangers of this and their spokeswoman added, "Some large companies will routinely challenge the injured employee about their role in the accident."
Despite the positive reaction the scheme has received from trade unionists and medical experts, there are still some antagonists to its introduction.
Alan Mitchell from the Confederation of British Industry Scotland revealed that he thought its implementation could simply become another stealth tax on businesses and there would be too much red tape involved.
Speaking to the media, he said, "We don't have concerns with the inherent principle, that if somebody is injured in the course of their work and the employer is proven to be negligent then they should be made to pay.
"But the devil is in the detail, particularly the bureaucracy needed to recoup this money."
Only time will tell how much bureaucracy is indeed involved with the operation of the scheme that comes into force in January, but it's certain that the NHS will be able to use the newly created funds to provide a better service to people from all over Scotland.
In addition to supplying hospitals with desperately needed funds, the NHS Scotland Injury Recovery Scheme is guaranteed to make employers think twice before exposing their staff to serious personal injuries through work accidents.
