Hospitals’ deals to let no win, no fee lawyers tout for clients in A&E
NHS hospitals are being paid to allow adverts from no win, no fee personal injury lawyers to be displayed in A& E waiting rooms, it emerged last night.
Some hospital trusts are receiving up to £200,000 a year to put the NHS- branded patient safety leaflets on show.
Two marketing firms say they have contracts with hundreds of hospital trusts across the UK to provide the adverts, which give patients phone numbers for ‘no win, no fee’ companies who can sue in cases of medical blunders.
The leaflets offer basic advice for problems such as head injuries and nose bleeds and are branded with the logos of the NHS and the hospital trust. But the reverse show adverts, most commonly for personal injury lawyers.
Some hospitals are using the money they get for displaying the leaflets to buy equipment, while others are given gifts of items such as uniforms or tea trolleys.
The marketing firms involved claim their contracts even prevent lawyers from suing the hospitals in which they advertise.
But critics say the deals are ethically dubious. Tory MP Andrew Bridgen, who has been campaigning against such deals for years, last night warned they are fuelling a ‘compensation culture’ that is ‘destroying the NHS’.
The NHS has paid a £6.4billion bill for compensation claims in the last ten years – with nearly a third spent on legal fees.
In 2006/07 there were just 50 open claims. But that has risen year-on-year to 9,493 claims still open in 2015/2016.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has repeatedly tried to tackle the problem, announcing several initiatives to end what he describes as the ‘blame culture’ at the heart of the NHS. But he is seemingly powerless to stop hospitals handing out the leaflets.
The revelations, made by the BBC Radio 4’s You and Yours programme, suggest legal firms are entitled to advertise within hospital trusts.
The Department of Health says it discourages the adverts but it is ultimately for trusts to decide.
The campaign by Mr Bridgen resulted in former NHS England Chief Executive Sir David Nicholson writing to trust leaders in 2012 warning them off such deals. But with no way to stop the arrangements, little has changed. Mr Bridgen, MP for North West Leicestershire, said: ‘By participating in these deals, the NHS is feeding a monster that is devouring it. For me it is immoral.’
BOE Publishing, based in Blackpool, and Pro Vision Systems, in Lytham St Annes, Lancashire, are two of the leading providers of NHS patient advice leaflets.
Pro Vision Systems told the BBC it had more than 200 NHS contracts to supply and maintain the A&E unit leaflet racks, and BOE Publishing claims to be contracted to 129 sites.
Defending the arrangements, Pro Vision Systems said: ‘The only advertisers who will spend the money required to fund this free service are personal injury lawyers.’
The company said some hospitals are increasingly reliant on the extra revenue. ‘ We know two trusts have used this money to pay months of overdue overtime,’ it told the BBC. ‘In one case, an A&E department which only had three heart monitors used the money we provided to buy eight new ones.’
BOE Systems said it offered cash and equipment donations to many of the hospitals it supplies, including uniforms and catering trolleys.
One senior NHS manager described the leaflets as ‘ ethically not ideal,’ adding: ‘You know we’re not the only ones doing this.’
Dr Sarah Wollaston, chairman of the Commons Health Select Committee, said: ‘This process is encouraging people to make a claim they might not otherwise have done.’
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said allowing the firms to advertise in NHS leaflets ‘is in our view ethically questionable and could lead to patients being misled’.
Mr Hunt is determined to make hospital wards safer while reducing compensation claims.
Last month he announced a rapid compensation scheme for babies left disabled by medical blunders and promised a ‘legal safe space’ for doctors who own up to mistakes.
A spokesman for Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, where such leaflets are on display, said: ‘We can confirm that we do have a contract with a firm to provide patient information literature across the emergency department.’
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘ Guidelines state that NHS bodies should not consider advertising personal injury or claims management services – however, this form of advertising is a matter for individual trusts.’
‘Leaflets fuel culture of compensation’