Stance on rehab needs a helping hand

The UK has a compensation system that has been carefully built, layer by layer, over time - yet there is an inefficient focus on the process rather than an injured party. As the government looks at ways in which to reform the system, rehabilitation should become a significant part of the process.

Rehabilitation not only provides insurers with early contact with claimants but enables them to recover more quickly, reducing life cycles and ultimately lessening the amount paid out in claims costs. Although at present there is limited data to support this, rehabilitation may also deter fraudulent claimants who are being challenged far earlier in the claims process.

That said, if rehabilitation is to become compulsory - which insurers are fully in support of - then there has to be a real focus on how it is delivered effectively. The industry needs to ensure that there is sufficient, properly accredited and trained professionals who can deliver the required treatment. Within the NHS and, to a lesser degree, the private sector, there is a limited supply of rehabilitation services. This leaves individuals struggling to find timely and appropriate advice and treatment to help restore them to their former selves.

Despite improvements in some parts of the NHS, provision and quality of rehabilitation services remains inconsistent across the UK, in that evidence-based medicine is not always delivered.

The few rehabilitation practitioners that the UK has operate in a largely unregulated or unaccredited system. At present, rehabilitation service can be offered by anyone. There are no compulsory qualifications, competence standards or regulations for rehabilitation practitioners. In fact, most practitioners in the UK come from abroad where, in many countries, there are graduate and post-graduate clinical and non-clinical rehabilitation courses. Arguably, there should be such courses available in the UK, funded and regulated by the government with additional funding or sponsorship from key stakeholders such as insurers.

Hopefully, with ongoing efforts such as companies adopting an evidence-based medicine rehabilitation approach to whiplash or evidence-based medicine back schemes, the government realises just how significant it would be for rehabilitation to be at the heart of the UK's compensation system.