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Three-quarters of healthcare professionals believe the current system of compensation for whiplash is open to fraud.
A survey of more than 500 GPs, physiotherapists and consultants found widespread scepticism about the process of claiming after accidents.
Almost 90% believe some whiplash claims could be given a different label, while 47% of GPs providing medical reports in personal injury believe the system encourages diagnosis for maximum gain.
The survey, the full results of which will be published later this month, follows justice secretary Jack Straw’s comment that whiplash diagnoses are delivered by ‘third-rate doctors, in the pay of claims management companies or personal injury lawyers’.
But the research, commissioned by three leading insurers and rehabilitation provider HCML, suggests that doctors believe their hands are tied by regulations.
Medico Legal News Source: Law Society Gazette
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