By Ken Thomas, Medical Negligence Specialist of Harding Evans Solicitors

Last month saw the launch of a radical new Pilot Scheme for clinical negligence claims in Wales. The Welsh Assembly’s Speedy Resolution Scheme was launched on 1st February. The Assembly hopes that the Scheme will reduce the length of time taken to resolve cases of clinical negligence and cut down on the costs of such claims. The Welsh Assembly Government also want to see more lessons learned from individual cases.

There is currently no equivalent Scheme in England. So how will the Welsh Scheme work? Firstly it will only cover certain cases. To qualify, a potential claim must be worth between £5,000 and £15,000. If the potential case could involve several different medical specialisms, it would not be eligible for the Scheme. Potential claims on behalf of children are excluded. Likewise, the Scheme will only cover potential claims against NHS Trusts. Therefore, any potential cases against General Practitioners, Dentists and such like would not be eligible.

If a patient, or their family, wishes to take up the Scheme, they must instruct one of a handful of accredited clinical negligence solicitors. The Scheme will run to a fixed timetable.

The aim is to quicken up the process so that stress for patients/families and clinicians alike is minimised. Where a case is entered into the Scheme, details are passed to an independent medical expert outside of Wales who will scrutinise the facts and prepare a report saying whether or not he or she feels the patient has been the victim of medical negligence.

The lawyers and doctors who take part in the Scheme are paid fixed fees for the work that they undertake. The Pilot will run for just 100 cases. At the end of that period, the results will be analysed to see whether or not the Scheme should be rolled out on a permanent basis and more widely.

So will the Scheme prove successful? Obviously, it is early days yet. From my perspective, whether or not the Scheme succeeds depends upon how satisfied patients are with opinions secured from the independent medical experts. Some patients may be unhappy with the thought of one, albeit independent, doctor effectively determining whether or not they have been treated negligently. This is quite a departure from the usual, Court based system where the question of negligence is ultimately determined by a Judge. The Speedy Resolution Scheme will not involve the Courts.

Some may feel that this is a rather simplistic means of determining these disputes. They may query whether it is right (or indeed possible) to reduce such complex and very important matters to that level. Only time will tell.

For now, any initiative that is intended to increase access to justice should be welcomed and at least tried. This speedier and cheaper procedure may enable more people to seek compensation that they are entitled to – people who have up until now been put off by the thought of potentially lengthy and costly Court proceedings.

In any event, any patient who would like to take part in the Scheme should bear in mind that it is (initially at least) going to run for a limited period of time only and should therefore consider seeking legal advice in early course. For the Scheme to be truly representative, it must involve patients from all corners of Wales, including Gwent.