Tuesday, 24 March 2009

Lawyers use NHS as £100m cash cow

LAWYERS are earning £800 an hour from the National Health Service and taking “indefensible” fees of tens of millions of pounds in legal disputes. The money is coming from a government scheme intended to compensate patients for medical blunders and inadequate care, an investigation has found.

The compensation lawyers are claiming costs and “success fees” worth about £100m a year out of the scheme. In some cases the payouts claimed are 10 times more than the damages won by the patient.

In one case involving Barking, Havering & Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust, a legal firm claimed nearly £78,000 in costs and fees, having won just £7,000 for a female patient. A Liverpool firm submitted a legal bill for £4.4m for a single case.

Just a thought, but if our money was being used to pay for more doctors and nurses, and less on highly-paid morons hectoring on irrelevant nonsense, wouldn't the legal bill be a lot smaller?

Source: The Times

1 comment:

Linda said...

I've never known a poor lawyer.
If they say good morning to you, its a £50 quid bill!