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Injury lawyer advertising ban could cost NHS £1m
An attempt to rid the Welsh NHS of adverts for personal injury lawyers could cost the health service £1m, the industry has warned. The Claims Standards Council has said NHS trusts could be forced to pay compensation for breaching contracts if Health Minister Edwina Hart pursues a ban on such adverts. Mrs Hart has already told NHS trusts she believes adverts for claims companies are “highly inappropriate”. Its call comes after Mrs Hart demanded an explanation from Cardiff and Vale NHS Trust about why advice leaflets featuring an advert for the company Asyst were given to patients at the University Hospital of Wales. The advert, printed on the back of an advice sheet for sprained ankles, urges people who injured in an accident which is not their fault to call about compensation.
A Welsh Health Circular issued last year instructed all NHS organisations that patient information leaflets featuring adverts for personal injury lawyers or similar should be removed “as soon as practically possible”. This was followed up by a ministerial letter seeking assurances that the Welsh Health Circular had been carried out. But the Claims Standards Council, which represents the industry, has now written to Mrs Hart demanding that she withdraw the directives.
Leanne Wood, Plaid Cymru AM for South Wales Central, raised the issue of the University Hospital of Wales, she said: “While people injured in accidents and other incidents should be compensated, it is not right that private no-win no-fee law firms, who profit from both compensation claimants and our public services, should be advertising in the NHS. Is it really appropriate to advertise in a hospital?”
A Welsh Assembly Government spokesman said: “Such intemperate language from a professional organisation is to be regretted. As long ago as March 2008, the Minister indicated that patient information leaflets featuring such adverts should be removed as soon as practically possible without incurring financial penalties.
“There was never an expectation that NHS organisations would break any contracts – rather that any contracts already in place should not be renewed. It is unhelpful and misleading to suggest people will be missing out on information about such companies when it is freely available from numerous other sources, including newspapers and television
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