National Health Service (Concerns, Complaints and Redress Arrangements) (Wales) Regulations 2011
More information on the NHS Redress Scheme pilot that was implemented by the Welsh Assembly during 2011.
The regulations state that the limitation period that exists, in other words the amount of time that a claimant has to bring a civil claim for clinical negligence, is suspended whilst an application for redress is being considered and the patient or his legal representatives must have time to properly consider any offer of redress before the limitation period starts to run once again.
Regulation 32 says that in situations where a qualifying liability exists the body concerned must ensure that legal advice is available while medical experts should also be instructed if they are requested, jointly by the NHS body and the person who notified the concern. Subsection 2 of the same regulation also deals with the type of solicitor sought to deal with cases and stipulates that only those with experience of and expertise in clinical negligence matters should be used.
Whether or not they have the required expertise depends upon factors such as whether the firm has at least one partner or senior member of staff who is a member of the Law Society Clinical Negligence Panel or the Action Against Medical Accidents Clinical Negligence Panel. The Welsh Assembly justifies its strict criteria in terms of recruiting a legal firm as it says that doing so will ensure the best use of public money which will also afford the best service to patients. The NHS body itself will bear the cost of the legal experts rather than the patient.
The regulations also look into the time when such legal advice must be made available and considers the legal fees that should be paid. It says that specialist solicitors are to work for staged, fixed fees whilst a fee structure is being agreed by the Legal Advice Working Group, as part of the "Putting Things Right" project. The final regulation in terms of redress, regulation 33, examines the time limits which apply when making offers of redress and other associated items such as extensions to time limits and the time limits for considering offers.
To ensure the smooth running of the scheme each body has to appoint a "responsible officer" to oversee its running and to see that lessons are learnt where appropriate, while there should also be a senior investigating officer to look into concerns raised. The regulations apply to NHS bodies within Wales but not to GPs or independent providers of healthcare and there is relief, within organisations representing those bodies, who felt it would have led to chaos for them to be involved in a compensation scheme when they are not NHS indemnified.
