I am aching this morning. The various gizmos on the treadmill kept me distracted and I ended up running 4 miles not 3 - but to be honest, not as fast as I usually do it. The new treadmill must be calibrated wrongly...Back to Jackson - we have had an idea floated by Susan Brown of ProLegal - one of the members of the CJA Jackson pressure group. It is quite interesting:

At the moment, the Government recoups the claimant's NHS treatment charges from defendant insurers but these are capped at £43k plus just £177 for ambulance charges. The problem is, for serious injuries, the £43k cap is not enough, ambulances cost more than £177 per call out AND, treatment post accident including physiotherapy (often carried out in the claimant's GP surgery) isn't claimed for. This is because there is no recoupment of GP charges.

Susan proposes that there is no upper cap, and that all treatment fees associated with the accident should be repaid to the NHS. The logic is, if the claimant decided to undergo private treatment, it would be recoverable as one of the heads of claim and why should the tax payer be footing the bill for something which is an insured risk?

We can't see any reasons why this shouldn't be taken up by the Government. It makes sense and would be easy to administer under the current CRU system. No doubt the defendant insurers will object. Might affect their profits....

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