The Next Steps on the NHS Five Year Forward View states that firms will be stopped from ‘operating from or touting for business’ – including advertising their services. Simon Stevens, Chief Executive of NHS England, explained: ‘We want lawyers out of hospital and doctors out of court. That's why personal injury lawyers are going to be banned from NHS premises following consultation on changes to the NHS Standard Contract.’
Costly
The NHS paid out £1.5 billion in clinical negligence costs in 2015/16, with legal costs accounting for 34 per cent of that bill and in many cases lawyers' costs exceeded the compensation awarded to claimants. The move to attempt to control theses costs was met with favour among the public as a recent MPS survey showed that 70 per cent of people said it as inappropriate for law firms to advertise for clinical negligence cases in health care settings.
Positive step
Dr Pallavi Bradshaw, senior medicolegal adviser at the Medical Protection Society, said: ‘This is a positive step …We look forward to seeing further commitment to stemming legal costs in the coming months as Government decides on the threshold for its fixed recoverable costs scheme, aimed at stopping lawyers charging excessive legal fees.’
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