Sir,
The replacement of Primary Care Trusts with new Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) like NHS Sutton CCG now serving the Sutton area is an important development in ensuring healthcare budgets are allocated locally. Doctors are best placed to determine patient needs and now they have the power to make these important clinical decisions.

However, improving patient care is exceptionally difficult when budgets are being harshly reduced.  NHS cuts are sadly a fact of life and CCGs must try to make annual cost savings of 4% without compromising patient care.  While we all need to challenge government to protect the NHS for the future, medical professionals must act now to ensure patients get the treatment they need and hospitals get the necessary funds to deliver it.

In keeping with their new role, CCGs can use innovative means of funding the care their patients require.  For example, in many instances the cost of a trauma victim’s rehabilitative care can, and indeed should, be recovered from the insurers of the at-fault party.  ‘Injury cost recovery’, as it is often described, is well known to many medical professionals, but the scope of the injuries for which the NHS can recoup costs for reinvestment in patient care, is much greater than many realise.  Less well known is the Rehabilitation Code which facilitates access to treatment, for a number of conditions ranging from frozen shoulder to occupational diseases and respiratory illnesses.

When budgets are tighter than ever and being squeezed more by the day, the new Clinical Commissioning Groups must explore every opportunity to get the right treatment for the patients in their care. If there is a proper use of the legal process to recover monies, millions of pounds can be made available for reinvestment in the care of injured patients and those suffering from illness.

Alicia Alinia
Lawyer and Trustee of Pain UK
Slater & Gordon LLP