NHS hit in the rear!

Not sure whether it is a consequence of the Whiplash reforms, but NHS finances have been hit by almost £300 million because of a collapse in the amount of treatment costs which are recovered from at-fault car insurers.

When people are injured as a result of negligence, the NHS can recover their treatment costs from the at-fault insurer under the NHS Injury Costs Recovery (ICR) scheme. However, in recent years, these recoveries have failed to keep up with the increasing treatment costs faced by the NHS.

APIL found that, while ambulance and hospital costs associated with road casualties increased by 84% between 2019 and 2024, treatment costs recovered from car insurers fell by 4%. This divergence between rising treatment costs and falling recoveries means that the NHS lost out on an estimated £277 million between 2021 and 2024. In 2024 alone, the cost to the NHS stood at £119 million.

Furthermore, while treatment costs arising from road traffic collisions totalled an estimated £3.1 billion in 2024, just 4% of these costs were recovered from car insurers. This percentage has halved since 2019. As a result, the NHS, rather than the wrongdoer, is responsible for an increasing share of road injury victims’ treatment costs.

APIL conclude that a collapse in the number of road injury victims going on to claim compensation is likely to have contributed to the drop in recoveries, as the NHS cannot recover any costs where the injured person has not claimed compensation. The existing recovery scheme also unjustly restricts the amount of treatment costs which the NHS can recover.