Vital drugs are rationed – but lawyers cash in
Your story last week revealed how lawyers are charging obscene fees to pursue medical negligence cases against the NHS. These solicitors should be made to read your Health section story about the how the NHS has been forced to withdraw a breakthrough tumour drug used to help children because the treatment is ‘not currently affordable’.
These lawyers should think twice about what they are doing. They are part of the reason why the NHS has to ration such lifesaving medication.
R. Stobie, Newcastle-upon-Tyne
Your article rightly exposed how some law firms pursuing compensation for patients use the no-win, no-fee system to obtain ‘grossly inflated’ fees that should instead be spent on patient care. The Society of Radiographers, the trade union and professional body representing radiographers, has similar concerns.
Your call for the Government to look again at rules relating to nowin, no-fee litigation is important, but Government attempts to cap fees fail to address the problem.
We need a wide-ranging review of all options, including looking at how patients can be compensated without having to use the adversarial legal process.
This approach has the added advantage of allowing healthcare professionals to learn lessons when things go wrong.
Your article quotes legal firms who blame the NHS for not admitting liability earlier in many cases. If mistakes can be investigated without the need to assess liability, there can be a more open examination of events, staff can learn and quickly share lessons, and compensation can be paid without delay. This would be a win-win for patients and the taxpayer, and also end payment of the huge fees to law firms.
Paul Moloney, Society of Radiographers
I’m not surprised that ambulancechasing lawyers are draining cash from the NHS. After all, Health Service managers do not seem to have any interest in practicalities or common sense. My mother-inlaw is 93, and we want to share her care equally with my sister-in-law, who lives in Cambridge, instead of putting her into a residential home.
But the NHS is unable to assist in one simple and minor request: linking two GP surgeries, so that my mother-in-law is able to see a doctor both here in Kent and in Cambridge. No wonder it cannot fight off more serious issues.
Jaqueline Bryant, Ramsgate
These lawyers aren’t just fleecing the NHS, they’re fleecing us all. Motorists, councils, employers, banks – they all pass on the costs of unrealistic claims generated through these people.
There’s a simple solution: ban legal firms from advertising. That would surely save everyone a small fortune.
Graham Archer, Chorley