Most of us find that when attending our GP surgery, we often see a number of different GPs and medical practitioners and have no continuity of care.

Often this is frustrating and means that we have to repeat our medical history on every visit and we never build up a relationship with our GP. But sometimes this problem can lead to a misdiagnosis when GPs are unfamiliar with the patient’s past medical history.

A case has come to light recently whereby the failure of a GP to properly read and understand the patient’s medical records and history has led to a misdiagnosis and a failure to spot a condition, which without immediate treatment at the onset of symptoms, leaves the sufferer with very serious permanent symptoms.
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The majority of you reading this blog will have probably already passed your driving test and most likely would hate to have to put through the whole rigmarole ever again! Nerve racking, stressful, and expensive are just a few memories that spring to my mind when thinking back! It’s true what they say as well…you never really know how to drive until you’ve passed your test and you’re out on the roads alone.

What do you make of this then?

I read recently on the Daily Mails website that the Driving Standards Agency has ‘revamped’ the driving test once again and this will be coming in to place from 4^th October this year.
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Third Party Capture is probably something that not many people have heard of. It’s something that a lot of insurance companies have in place to try and save themselves money. If you have been involved in a road traffic accident, you will probably receive a lot of phone calls from numerous companies trying to persuade you to allow them to deal with your claim – even from the third party’s insurance company.

The third party’s insurance company will try to make it sound very appealing for you to place a claim with them directly. For example, they will promise to settle your claim very quickly, which means less hassle for you. They will probably also tell you that you could receive your settlement figure in a matter of weeks. This will probably all sound very nice until you realise what they are actually doing – The Third Party’s insurance company will offer you all these things is an attempt to cut their fees. If you choose to go with them it means that they don’t have to pay any legal fees to a company dealing with your claim – and it also means they will more than likely under settle your claim!
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You may or may not have heard of Legal Expense Insurance; your insurance company may offer it as part of your insurance cover on your car. But whatever you do, don’t pay for it!

Basically it is a service that insurance companies offer that is nothing more than a sham! What happens is, if you have had an accident and you report it through to your insurance company, they will most probably try to persuade you to place a claim with them for any personal injuries you may have sustained. I would strongly advise that you don’t place a claim for personal injury with them; this is because you will straight away lose money. Claims companies and Insurance companies are not equipped to deal with personal injury claims; it’s solicitors who can only deal with these claims efficiently.
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They are a lot more common that you might think! Which is surprising given that the rules and regulations employers must adhere to are strict and numerous to protect the safety of the employees in their working environment. So here’s a little insight in to why employers fail to adhere to regulations (leaving them open to a claim against them), and what employers are expected to do:

Well, perhaps it’s a lack of understanding of the importance of health and safety regulations in the workplace that is a root cause. There are common duties that all employers must ensure to uphold; such as ensuring all access ways are free from hazard (e.g. no holes in the floor!!!), ensuring all electrical equipment is duly tested for safety (e.g. no explosive kettles!), or even employees being trained and instructed on the buildings fire procedures. So what kind of rules and regulations must employers adhere to?
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The recent case of Dr. Daniel Ubani is still fresh in many people’s minds. To recap, he was a German locum GP who inadvertently injected a 70 year old patient with over ten times the safe amount of diamorphine; a strong painkiller, resulting in their death. Not so well known is the fact that he is still practicing medicine in Germany, despite the seemingly clear case of negligence. Dr Ubani avoided a manslaughter prosecution in the UK as he had already been convicted in a German court of law, finding him guilty of death by negligence and giving him a nine-month suspended sentence.

In a similar case, a German surgeon, Werner Kolb, operated on a 92 year old lady during a routine hip procedure. He had been employed by the Lincolnshire Trust as holiday cover for one of their surgeons. As European law stipulates that Medical qualifications must be accepted at face value, no further checks were performed. During the operation, he strayed into a danger area and severed an artery, causing the patient to lose over 2 litres of blood. The patient was left bed bound by the operation and subsequently died of pneumonia.
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Have you recently had an accident in a taxi? Perhaps your child has been in an accident in a Taxi? Providing the accident was in no way any fault of your own, you may have a potential claim for compensation. This is because, in the eyes of the law, the passenger(s) involved in an accident in most circumstances are completely innocent party; this should mean if you chose to go ahead and make a claim for compensation, your claim should be quite straight forward.

If you have a child under the age of eighteen, they will require a Litigation Friend to represent them for the claim; this is usually a parent or guardian who will act on behalf of the child with their best interests in mind. A person under the age of eighteen usually doesn’t have the necessary skills or abilities to deal with such circumstances, so the litigation friend is able to make the claim on their behalf.  For any settlement sum that is recovered for the child, it will be stored in a trust fund held by the court until the victim reaches the age of 18.
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On occasions, incidents occur at school where a young child suffers injuries at no fault of their own. We all know what school is like – it’s a bit of a jungle on the playground – and boys will be boys, and children have their scraps and scrapes. But when does a bit of adolescent innocence turn in to a case of negligence on behalf of the school?

Well, you are probably already aware of this, but all schools have a very clear duty of care to ensure that the students are well looked after and do not come to any harm. If a child is the victim of some kind of defect in the school, perhaps a pothole in the playground or a damaged chair, then the school is obviously liable for any suffering. But what if the incident is involving another pupil; perhaps some kind of a fight or instance of bullying – is the school liable?
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Have you had an accident whilst abroad? Perhaps you are wondering what to do as the accident was caused by no fault of your own; but because you were abroad, you may think it’s difficult to do anything about it. These types of accidents can be a little harder to deal with because different rules and regulations apply to different countries.

If you are looking to perhaps make a claim for compensation as a result of an accident you have had whilst abroad, you may still be able to claim. If the holiday was booked as part of a package through a UK based agency and the accident occurred due to the negligence of a party that is related to the package, then you can claim against the package provider.

For example, if you had an accident in a hotel, for instance you tripped over something that shouldn’t have been left lying around, and the hotel was part of the package you booked, then you could potentially have a claim for compensation against the package provider.
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And “cost” is pretty much the important part of it! Because if you deal with the insurers of the third party directly, it is more than likely it will end up costing you money!

So what do I mean by this? Well, in most instances, I am not implying that insurers will charge you for dealing with them directly in a claim for personal injury by way of a percentage of your damages, or invoicing you. What I mean is that if you go down the route of dealing with third party insurers directly, you are very likely to get less compensation than you are entitled to recover.

So what is this, why is this the case, and what can you do about it? It’s called Third Party Capture!
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