Forget 999, dial my solicitor! (Compensation culture)

Member Name: grogling

Product:	Compensation culture
Date:	08/03/02 (48 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Potential lost lives!, A drain on society.

I'm sorry to tag on the end of this theme but It is a subject I find very frustrating. I have been in the Ambulance service for 17 years, 12 of which have been as a Paramedic. During this time there has been an extremely noticeable shift towards litigation.
I accept that there is a need to protect the rights of individuals and undo suffering should be compensated but when I am stopped in the street by a 'Crash Care' agent and am told that he can get me £3000 for a whiplash injury I feel it's gone too far.
I recently told a patient with negligable injuries that they didn't require hospital treatment only to be overruled by their friend who said that it would make their claim a lot stronger. Needless to say I didn't take them but the time spent dealing with people like this removes a valuable emergency resource from someone who desperately requires it.
It is now common place to turn up at a road accident and find one or both parties on the mobile phone to their solicitors. I have even been told to wait until someone has finished their telephone conversation before I could treat them for a potential spinal injury.
To compound the issue, medical staff now have to contend with these ambulance chasers targeting them as well as the other parties involved in an accident. A person in America was sued a couple of years ago because he cracked someones rib whilst successfully performing CPR. One unscrupulous group of solicitors in the UK recently advertised with the slogon 'Did the doctor or nurse make it worse? We can get you compensation'. The health service is a highly demoralised, overloaded and understaffed area of the public sector. They have enough problems without a pack of vultures circling above their heads.
The ambulance service alone is desperately struggling to make government targets. Each wasted call can potentially cost a life. It is a sad reflection on a society when people will put their own financial gain ab
ove the lives and wellbeing of others.
If people are so keen to sue, then the NHS should be allowed to reclaim it's expenses from the awarded compensation before the solicitors take their fat percentage.

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