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Disability equipment, occupational health report and rehabilitation after a serious injury caused by an accident, victim support and advice for the disabled to help with rehabilitation
Continuing with what one is to expect in an Occupational Health Report.
Equipment
This section will always depend on the nature of your disability. In our case it was an above knee amputation so equipment needs had to cater for all status's that he would be in ie Ambulant (walking), semi ambulant (sometimes walking and sometimes in a wheelchair) and totally wheelchair bound.
Start of article about
victim support and rehabilitation.
Previous page about
rehabilitation equipment.
These three states will create a mighty headache for the lawyers to argue over. You will find there is a trading match will go on. For example a common argument may be if the defendant is paying for prosthetic legs why do they need to pay for wheelchairs? You must be ready to answer these varying arguments.
Ambulant: To cater for this state one would need Prostheses. You could stay with the NHS for your provision of prostheses and the defendant will say that this is sufficient. That is the cheapest option for the defendants. However, you may find that even the defendants prosthetic expert will acknowledge that it was far better to access private prostheses for the best possible allocation of up to date technology. If you have Body Image problems you may also need Custom Made High Definition Silicone Cosmesis, colour matched and with body hair to your individual needs.
Anyone reading this article should be aware of this aspect within the private sector and indeed within the NHS. NHS budgets put a huge constraint on their ability to provide the best prostheses for patients. However it is possible to access NHS budgets for cosmeses, but unfortunately not to the degree that you can access them privately. NHS Cosmeses are totally inadequate especially for above knee amputees.
You should not necessarily believe though that the defendants prosthetic expert will agree with what is written here. He may take the view that you are best suited to the NHS and to what they will provide. We have knowledge of some amputees that either want to stay with the NHS or are forced into this position because money has not been released from the defendants insurers to purchase the prostheses. That is a job for Competent Solicitors fighting for you.
If you are in either of these positions then you should be aware of all the facts which may not be known to you. Your solicitor should be aware of the following principle in law.
One is entitled to buy your prostheses (and every other piece of equipment) privately this has been clearly stated in law in the Law Reform (Personal Injuries) Act 1948 section 2(4).
A prosthesis is a poor substitute for lost limbs and it is only these substitutes that are available. Therefore the principle of restitutio in integrum applies. (signifies the rescinding of a contract or legal transaction so as to place the parties to it in the same position with respect to one another which they occupied before the contract was made or the transaction took place.)
What must be established in law however is that the person using the facility of privately funded items will continue to use the service.
The clearest evidence of this is the actual purchase of the items that you are requiring. That is why the solicitor will advise you that goods and services must be purchased to prove your case. Which is why sufficient funds must be released beforehand for this to be done. It often means the shunning of the NHS entirely for many years while the trial is in its pre trial phase.
What you must bear in mind is the fact that you are entitled to your quota of prosthetic limbs through the NHS or indeed any other allocation of NHS services and drugs. So once the trial is finished and you have your compensation or if you did not receive as much as you expected or indeed you eventually run out of money, there is nothing in your way to return to your Limb Centre or treating department within the NHS and resume your relationship with them.
However you must bear this in mind, all prosthetists and perhaps other doctors and professionals in a small defined area of practice within the NHS and private sector, generally will know each other within their defined professional community. It is a very small world! You can expect your treating professional to hear stories about you for example through other perhaps other prosthetists and professionals at conventions and lectures and courses throughout the world. It is best to keep your plan of action in obtaining your limbs simple. Keep to the same prosthetist be it private or NHS never mix the two as it is a recipe for disaster.
The defendants insurer will be very aware of this principle in law and in many cases will not want to acknowledge the principle. Your solicitor should be advising you to spend money in the purchase of private goods and services but may not spell out exactly why you have to do it. We spell it out to you, it is Section 2(4) Law Reform (Personal Injuries) Act 1948 and restitutio in integrum as stated above.
A judge faced with an argument from the defence that you have not bought any private services or goods will find it hard to allocate funds for the purchase of future goods and services because on the balance of probabilities you will not continue to use the service in the future. This could cost you hundreds of thousands of pounds in lost compensation. Remember you are only entitled to compensation if it is proved in evidence that there is a need for it.
Your solicitor will be doing you a great disservice if this is not spelt out to you. Dissatisfied? You may need Mentor Experiences to assist you before it is too late. In addition you may feel that if your solicitor has not pointed out this to you then you may want to consider whether he is acting in your best interests. There are few solicitors that are truly experienced in personal injury work, certainly not for the catastrophically injured, and as far as we are concerned it is best to have the top firms and barristers and Q.C.s working for you, after all if it is good enough for the insurer then why not you?
A common tactic insurers take is the withholding of funds from you to try and force the argument in their favour. This common tactic has kept the level of compensation artificially low and down for many years.
You may question the fairness of the law for this system to remain and in some ways the system positively encourages the downsizing of compensation claims but unless you fight for your just compensation, no-one will do it for you, even if you use the very best firms. If you find yourself in this withholding funds position again your solicitor must take action.
The first question a competent Personal Injury solicitor should ask you is "How much money have you had from the insurance company?" If the answer is very little or nothing then the solicitor should be writing immediately to the insurance company and demanding substantial funds. Of course you want to know numbers, quite right too, but the reality is that is down to the judgement of the solicitor and the level of your injuries. A percentage of what your claim is worth would be the ideal but that is only possible by assessment by the professional in each case.
Insurers will be horrified that they should be demanded of and certainly if the demand is say in six figures then they will squeal very loudly. Our own experience though was, 'You only had to ask," and sent the cheque at the amount that was requested. Note the fact that immediately a solicitor who was not afraid of the insurance company and stood up to them the insurance company immediately gave way.
How do you go about
choosing a wheelchair?
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