Should medical staff spend time on accident claims?

Boulevardier

I was recently involved in a road traffic accident which involved me and my companions being ambulanced to one of the larger Dublin hospitals. A week or so later, I and the others went to a solicitor to handle our injury claim.

I was a bit surprised to receive, about 3 weeks after this, a letter from the solicitor's firm telling me that an appointment had been made for me with an A+E consultant in that hospital.

The consultant (who had not seen me at the time of the accident) duly saw me in A+E during the afternoon for about half an hour, and did out a report to go to the solicitor in connection with my claim. He did the same for my friends.

That is all very well, but is this standard practice, and is it really an appropriate use of a public hospital A+E consultant's time?

L1011

Boulevardier wrote: »

I was recently involved in a road traffic accident which involved me and my companions being ambulanced to one of the larger Dublin hospitals. A week or so later, I and the others went to a solicitor to handle our injury claim.

I was a bit surprised to receive, about 3 weeks after this, a letter from the solicitor's firm telling me that an appointment had been made for me with an A+E consultant in that hospital.

The consultant (who had not seen me at the time of the accident) duly saw me in A+E during the afternoon for about half an hour, and did out a report to go to the solicitor in connection with my claim. He did the same for my friends.

That is all very well, but is this standard practice, and is it really an appropriate use of a public hospital A+E consultant's time?

Its almost absolutely certain that you were seen privately, and that his (hefty enough) costs will be added to the costs element of any settlement received.

Boulevardier

Yes, I thought that might be the case, and I am not against private appointments with consultants, but should this really happen in an A+E department during its working hours, albeit during what is probably a relatively slack period?

L1011

Boulevardier wrote: »

Yes, I thought that might be the case, and I am not against private appointments with consultants, but should this really happen in an A+E department during its working hours, albeit during what is probably a relatively slack period?

He may have actually finished his working hours for the state. I dislike the use of state medical facitilies for any private work but the hospitals at least often claim it provides them with required funding; but its a different issue really.

Marcusm

Redacted

CIARAN_BOYLE

Not an expert but are emergency medicine staff not required to be on site and on call for more hours than they are rostered to work?

If so would not this kind of medicolegal private work not make sense for on call on site time?

Marcusm

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Not an expert but are emergency medicine staff not required to be on site and on call for more hours than they are rostered to work?

If so would not this kind of medicolegal private work not make sense for on call on site time?

Redacted

Marcusm

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

A friend of mine has to be on call on site 2 nights a week but he is not a consultant so its probably different.

redacted

Marcusm

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

He works core rostered hours and then sleep in the hospital on call if needed.

Anyway its not relevant to the ops post so lets move on.

redacted

Pat Mustard

More relevant to Health Sciences so moved there.

Please note that their charter applies.

drzhivago

Boulevardier wrote: »

I was recently involved in a road traffic accident which involved me and my companions being ambulanced to one of the larger Dublin hospitals. A week or so later, I and the others went to a solicitor to handle our injury claim.

I was a bit surprised to receive, about 3 weeks after this, a letter from the solicitor's firm telling me that an appointment had been made for me with an A+E consultant in that hospital.

The consultant (who had not seen me at the time of the accident) duly saw me in A+E during the afternoon for about half an hour, and did out a report to go to the solicitor in connection with my claim. He did the same for my friends.

That is all very well, but is this standard practice, and is it really an appropriate use of a public hospital A+E consultant's time?

Solicitor wants an opinion for you to judge the strength of your case

Solicitor asked for appointment with consultant in place who has the evidence from your case , though they could have processed a freedom of information request for you to that hospital to get copies of your records and referred you to another relevant specialist

There are not a lot of private ED specialists, those working privately in private Ed are generally seeing patients who are ill without having junior doctors as part of team also so will not easily have time to process your solicitors requests

There are a very small number of retired ED consultants who do this full time but I don't know how busy they are

Regarding standard practice - i can't say - appropriate is another question - to be rude does everyone in a road traffic accident need to make a claim, my experience is that most people recover quickly enough and if you were well enough to see a solicitor a week later and you had no broken bones then the safety systems in the car were good enough, you were lucky and should try to put it behind you

In some countries there is no need for solicitors for stuff like this there are small pay outs for suffering but i stress small, your work absences would be covered under the scheme and life goes on. Consider the costs incurred overall now on this, was it necessary to have a solicitor, if you had not seen them you would not have been referred to the A&E consultant etc etc

drzhivago

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

Not an expert but are emergency medicine staff not required to be on site and on call for more hours than they are rostered to work?

If so would not this kind of medicolegal private work not make sense for on call on site time?

not sure why someone would be required to be at work on site fore more than their sobered hours

surely an oxymoron, if not rostered go hime

If required = roster the hours

Am I being too idealistic... a hospital specialist

_Tombstone_

drzhivago wrote: »

to be rude does everyone in a road traffic accident need to make a claim, my experience is that most people recover quickly enough and if you were well enough to see a solicitor a week later and you had no broken bones then the safety systems in the car were good enough, you were lucky and should try to put it behind you

In some countries there is no need for solicitors for stuff like this there are small pay outs for suffering but i stress small, your work absences would be covered under the scheme and life goes on. Consider the costs incurred overall now on this, was it necessary to have a solicitor, if you had not seen them you would not have been referred to the A&E consultant etc etc

A minimum wage Factory worker, a Doctor, an Architect and a Solicitor get into a Elevator, the Elevator was having a bad day and the Occupants had a bumpy ride but arrived unscathed.

Guess who didn't Claim?

I've seen it many times where it's the well to do that'll have the Solicitor on Speed Dial.


Saying that, you don't have really have much choice, especially in a road accident, as it's the only way to get back the proper value of your Car.

Where are these countries where "there is no need for solicitors for stuff like this"?


Irelands hellbent on following the US in everything she does, Claim culture will only get worse, Zero hour contracts, if you've no insurance here in x years, A&E will probably "stabilise" you and toss you out, ReNua proposing 3 Strikes, like it's worked so well over there:rolleyes:............private prisons can't be far behind.

Mrs OBumble

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Where are these countries where "there is no need for solicitors for stuff like this"?

New Zealand is one.

There's no right to sue (so no solicitors needed), in return for a no-fault, 24x7, payroll tax funded, accident compenstation scheme, which covers medical treatment, rehabilitation and loss of income.

It's not perfect, of course. There is a certain moral hazard involved. But solicitors fees are vastly reduced. And it's great to be able to hold a neighbourhood party without having to take out public liability insurance.

_Tombstone_

Mrs OBumble wrote: »

New Zealand is one.

There's no right to sue (so no solicitors needed), in return for a no-fault, 24x7, payroll tax funded, accident compenstation scheme, which covers medical treatment, rehabilitation and loss of income.

It's not perfect, of course. There is a certain moral hazard involved. But solicitors fees are vastly reduced. And it's great to be able to hold a neighbourhood party without having to take out public liability insurance.

Do you get the proper value of a car back for eg under that scheme?

challengemaster

Boulevardier wrote: »

That is all very well, but is this standard practice, and is it really an appropriate use of a public hospital A+E consultant's time?

I imagine you're coming at this from a perspective of taking them away from other needy patients etc... realistically the grunt work is done by the intern(s) and SHO or maybe the Reg in more serious cases. It would be very unusual for the average patient going through A&E to ever see "the A&E consultant", as it would be a massive waste of their time.

Mrs OBumble

_Tombstone_ wrote: »

Do you get the proper value of a car back for eg under that scheme?

No. It doesn't cover property.

drzhivago

challengemaster wrote: »

I imagine you're coming at this from a perspective of taking them away from other needy patients etc... realistically the grunt work is done by the intern(s) and SHO or maybe the Reg in more serious cases. It would be very unusual for the average patient going through A&E to ever see "the A&E consultant", as it would be a massive waste of their time.

That is a rather big generalisation

I work in a hospital where ED consultant is on the floor all the time seeing patients and assisting SHO/registrar with theirs