C&G Safety & Environmental Limited

The NHS Injury Costs Recovery (ICR) scheme means that for the first time ever, the NHS will be able to recover costs from insurance companies for treating patients in all cases where personal injury compensation is paid. Hospitals are already able to recover the costs of treating people injured in road traffic accidents (RTA) where they have successfully claimed compensation for their injuries for the past 5 or so years.  NHS costs are payable by the insurer that pays the compensation. Since coming into operation the RTA scheme has recovered around £115 million per year for the NHS.

An NHS Spokesperson commented:

"Although this scheme will undeniably raise useful additional sums of money for hospitals it is not simply about raising more cash. It is based on the legal rights of the NHS and the responsibilities of those to blame. We hope it will act as an additional impetus to improving health and safety.

“This policy will encourage employers to take steps to prevent employees being injured and when implemented should increase the total recouped each year to around £300m for the NHS. The scheme will not introduce any more extra regulations for businesses and will be based on the current RTA scheme.

"It is unacceptable that taxpayers have to pay for the medical treatment of someone injured at work simply because employers fail to take adequate steps to protect their workforce. Individual hospitals will now be able to recover the costs and decide where they want to reinvest that money to improve services they want.”