Dental Protection has welcomed calls for the government to introduce reforms that would address disproportionate legal costs in clinical negligence claims.
A report published by the Public Accounts Committee states that they are “extremely concerned” about the legal cost-to-damages ratio in claims where compensation amounts to under £25,000, and urges the government to clarify its position on a fixed recoverable costs scheme for such claims at the earliest opportunity.
Commenting on the Committee’s inquiry report, Raj Rattan, Dental Director at Dental Protection said: “The Public Accounts Committee report provides yet more evidence about the need to tackle the rising cost of clinical negligence claims.
“A particular concern in dentistry is the impact of high legal costs. Dental claims usually involve much lower compensation payments than those made against the NHS or doctors in private practice, yet the associated legal fees can be disproportionately high – often exceeding the compensation patients receive.
“In our submission to the Public Accounts Committee, we argued that the government should take a two-step approach. It should without delay implement the long-awaited policy on Fixed Recoverable Costs for claims valued up to £25,000. It should then take a phased expansion of this regime to encompass claims valued up to £100,000.
“While the Public Accounts Committee’s role is to scrutinise government spending – in this case, the cost of claims against NHS trusts and GP practices – we were keen to ensure it also heard about the impact of claims on dentists. We hope its strongly worded report will now prompt the government to act.”
