Rehabilitation

What many people do not realise is that a personal injury claim is not just about obtaining compensation for an injured Claimant. A personal injury solicitor is also involved in your recovery journey and can support you through that as well as the litigation process.

Serious Injuries sustained in an accident will, of course, be treated initially by NHS providers; often in a Major Trauma Centre such as the East Midlands Major Trauma Centre located at QMC in Nottingham. But what happens once you are discharged from the hospital? This can often be the time when you do not know which way to turn for help, and it can be a period of great anxiety and uncertainty.

The gap in NHS rehabilitation

The NHS often cannot provide the intensive rehabilitation that a seriously injured Claimant requires, and that is where a personal injury solicitor can help.  Not only do we ensure that you are adequately compensated for the injuries you have sustained, but we can also ensure that you receive the rehabilitation treatment you require at an early stage so that your recovery progresses as quickly as possible.

The Rehabilitation Code (2015) is a voluntary UK framework for personal injury claims that encourages early, collaborative and funded rehabilitation for injured Claimants. The purpose of rehabilitation is to restore an injured person to as productive and as independent a lifestyle as possible using medical, functional and vocational intervention. Defendant insurance companies are encouraged and expected to agree to pay for agreed, assessed rehabilitation needs and must justify any refusal to follow recommendations made. When rehabilitation is provided under the Code, the insurer will not usually seek to recover the cost if a claim is unsuccessful.

How the immediate needs assessment works

As early as possible, in your claim, we will ask the Defendant’s insurance company to fund what is known as an ‘Immediate Needs Assessment’ or ‘INA’.  The parties jointly appoint an independent case manager to visit you at home and to assess what you need to ensure that your recovery is as quick and as easy as possible. The case manager will prepare an INA report, which is sent to both parties with recommendations and costings. The Defendant is then invited to fund those recommendations and must justify any refusal to do so.

The case manager will then support you through the rehabilitation process, ensuring you receive rehabilitation from private providers, including psychological support, physiotherapy, and surgery if required.

Nelsons acted for a Claimant who lost both arms in an industrial accident. When he was discharged from the hospital, the state care he was offered was completely inadequate for someone who could do nothing for himself. Through rehabilitation funding, Nelsons was able to put in place 24/7 care in his own home.

The prosthetic arm that was offered to him on the NHS reduced him to tears when he first saw it. We were able to allay that distress and anxiety by appointing a private prosthetics company to provide a bespoke, ‘state of the art’ prosthetic arm and the support to use it, which allowed him to be more independent.

Through the rehabilitation funded by the Defendant’s insurer, we were able to obtain for him psychological counselling, which he would not have been able to access for several months on the NHS, as well as physiotherapy and specialised equipment and adaptations for his home, which would not have been available to him on the NHS.

Even if your injuries are not catastrophic or life-changing, you are still entitled to receive funded rehabilitation to get you back on your feet and back to work more quickly than if you were having to wait for NHS care.