Reform overdue on injury claims

Sir — Irish General Practitioners (GPs) were extremely disappointed by the tone of Charlie Weston’s article (Business, Sunday Independent, March 4).

His article referred to the Irish College of General Practitioners’ (ICGP) submission to the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) on ‘Standardising the approach to the evaluation of soft-tissue personal injury claims’.

GPs, under instruction from a solicitor, must provide a factual medical report in relation to an accident which a patient suffers. GPs, by law, will provide truthful information reflecting the information given to them by the patient. A patient’s history, by its very definition, is subjective and is combined with any objective information demonstrated through a physical examination in a medical report.

Like many GPs, I would be very happy if I never had to write another medico-legal report again in my professional lifetime. They are time-consuming activities, creating a significant additional workload burden on already-stressed practices and they remove GPs from direct clinical contact with patients. However, responding to a solicitor’s request is a professional responsibility which we must obey, for both patients and society.

While it is true that Ireland is probably one of the most litigious countries in the world, if our legal framework was appropriate the factual medical reports provided by GPs should protect the system against spurious claims. Legal reform in this regard is long overdue, which would be greatly welcomed by everyone in our society, including GPs.

Dr Mark Murphy, Chair of Communications, Irish College of General Practitioners