Welsh people will be treated as “second class citizens” in comparison to their English counterparts if
proposals by the Welsh Assembly Government are agreed, say legal reform campaigners.
The Assembly’s failure to heed advice on plans for the NHS in Wales to become the “judge and jury” of its
own medical errors will result in the legal rights of injured Welsh people being restricted.
Not-for-profit legal reform campaigners the Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) had told the
Assembly of its serious concerns about plans for the NHS in Wales to investigate its own clinical errors
and decide whether or not it was at fault.
Several other bodies responded to a consultation with similar concerns, but the plans have continued to
move ahead.
Under the plans, those with injury claims with a value of up to £40,000 will only have access to independent
legal advice after the NHS has decided whether it would be liable. No such restrictions exist for
injured people in England.
The plans, if agreed, will leave Welsh people for instance living in Newport with less chance of getting
justice than those just 30 miles away in Bristol.
Brian Dawson, regional co-ordinator of the not-for-profit Association of Personal Injury Lawyers (APIL) in
Wales, said: “There must be equal access to justice for England and Wales, not a two-tier system. Clearly it
would be inappropriate to have a system which results in the Welsh being treated as second class citizens
in comparison to those across the border.
“We believe that patients will see that there is a conflict of interest here and that the wrongdoer is being
allowed to investigate himself. If so they will have no confidence in the validity of any investigation. The
scheme must be seen to be fair and independent.”
APIL believes the apparently arbitrary limit of £40,000 should be lowered to £25,000 to better represent
the type of clinical negligence cases which could be fast-tracked. APIL also insists that fatal cases should
be excluded from the new scheme from the outset.
Mr Dawson added: “The £40,000 figure seems to have been plucked out the air. These are not insignificant
claims and would prevent some claims of a very serious nature being handled under common law. These
cases are often complex and require independent, legal professionals to ensure patients receive the level
of service they deserve.”