Cheap as chips

I’m reading tonight about the concerns of doctors and the outgoing Chair of the Motor Accidents Solicitors Society about the new “whiplash panel” to be run by the reporting organization, MedCo.

This is the new ‘independent’ panel of ‘experts’ that will properly assess the impact and effect of soft tissue injuries, including whiplash which has so long been the bane of insurers who prefer to pay up on small claims, moan about fraud and say the only solution is to scrap all small claims regardless of the merits.

The costs of setting up this ‘independent’ panel is being funded by insurers. Smell a rat yet?

James Dalton of the Association of British Insurers (“ABI”) reportedly told the MASS conference how the lack of objective testing had led to an increase in fraudulent claims.

‘Developing an IT system that randomly allocates independent and accredited medical experts to claimant lawyers is critically important in working towards the delivery of fundamental reform of the medico-legal reporting system’, Dalton explained.

That word “randomly” evokes some memories…

Like the client with the serious orthopaedic injuries who was sent to be examined by The Abominable Dr Botox.

Or the GP “with an interest in” obstetrics and gynaecology who reported on another client’s cruciate knee ligament injury?  (Crash and capture)

And don’t forget the mystery practitioner in Fun Boy Three

In They walk among us at the start of this year I posed the question of “who will (truly) be controlling the selection of “experts” appointed to the new whiplash panels the MOJ is now proposing…”

Well now you know.

What will be the criteria for membership of these panels apart from paying a fee to join? Well, the main one is likely to be the one that insurers apply to every aspect of which they have seized control.

Cheap as chips – and I mean the nastiest, tasteless fries you can find.

It’s not just the ‘economies of cost’ that the Ministry of Justice (cough) so applauds – popular with the populace – but the consequential savings in compensation that worthless reports from worthless ‘experts’ will ensure.

Insurers will invest in this system and make it a success in the misty eyes of the MOJ and their chums in the present government so that, like the costs portals, it can be extended to reporting on a wider range of injuries.

No decent lawyers, no decent medics. Anything else you want James? No claims?