Browse content similar to 26/02/2012. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
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And in the South East: Compensation culture vultures or the victims' | :01:28. | :01:32. | |
last hope? We ask if plans to change legal aid for medical cases | :01:32. | :01:42. | |
:01:42. | :01:42. | ||
Apology for the loss of subtitles for 2041 seconds | :01:42. | :35:43. | |
Good afternoon. Coming up, working against women, how the coalition | :35:44. | :35:50. | |
government's cuts in public spending have hit the the male | :35:50. | :35:55. | |
employees hardest. Joining me is the leader of the Labour group on | :35:55. | :36:02. | |
Brighton and Hove Albion city council -- Brighton City Council. | :36:02. | :36:06. | |
Interestingly, you joined forces with the Conservatives to oppose | :36:06. | :36:11. | |
the green plans to put attacks on council tax -- an increase in | :36:11. | :36:17. | |
council tax. We are not partners with the Conservatives, but we felt | :36:17. | :36:22. | |
freezing council tax for next year was a good thing to do. We were | :36:22. | :36:31. | |
very pleased that the greens saw sense and act our amendments. We | :36:31. | :36:36. | |
were pleased that the Conservatives also supported us. A lot of Labour | :36:36. | :36:40. | |
supporters feel you should have supported the Green Party. We have | :36:40. | :36:45. | |
some issues with the ways the Green Party are running the council, they | :36:45. | :36:50. | |
had inherited a �3 million underspend, have not fulfilled | :36:50. | :36:54. | |
promises, one of which was to freeze council tax, but also | :36:54. | :37:01. | |
restructuring, which has not happened. These are unlikely | :37:01. | :37:08. | |
political alliances. The people of Brighton have been served well by | :37:08. | :37:12. | |
parties working together, and the idea that there was going to be a | :37:12. | :37:16. | |
10 % increase in council tax in the next three years was an | :37:16. | :37:21. | |
extraordinary policy, so I am sure most of the council tax payers will | :37:21. | :37:28. | |
be pleased with the result. amount of money paid out in | :37:28. | :37:32. | |
compensation to victims of NHS negligence in the South East has | :37:32. | :37:37. | |
shot up dramatically over the past few years. Figures show the Kent | :37:37. | :37:41. | |
and East Sussex authorities forked out �37 million between them over | :37:41. | :37:47. | |
the last financial year. The government says a growing | :37:47. | :37:54. | |
compensation culture is partly to blame. What would this mean for the | :37:54. | :38:03. | |
victims? Jill Phillips died at 68, leaving behind her husband and | :38:03. | :38:13. | |
:38:13. | :38:13. | ||
children. she had colon cancer, and the surgeon took away one small | :38:13. | :38:19. | |
growth, causing the cancer to spread. At a recent inquest, the | :38:19. | :38:24. | |
coroner ruled that her death was due to a series of medical failures | :38:24. | :38:30. | |
amounting to neglect. The no win, no mack fee element was important, | :38:30. | :38:38. | |
because as you can imagine as an ordinary family we would not have | :38:38. | :38:45. | |
access to the funds necessary to investigate. That meant we had | :38:45. | :38:50. | |
access to justice, which we would not otherwise have. Medical | :38:50. | :38:55. | |
negligence payouts by the NHS have increased by 10 % nationally. In | :38:55. | :39:02. | |
East Sussex that has gone up by 33 %. In Kent, the increase is less, | :39:02. | :39:09. | |
but the total payout is �21.6 million. For many people, it is not | :39:09. | :39:15. | |
about the money. We should not forget, Our Father may have | :39:15. | :39:18. | |
received some compensation but nothing will ever compensate for | :39:18. | :39:28. | |
:39:28. | :39:32. | ||
the loss of his wife. As he said, it is a life sentence. It is a life | :39:32. | :39:35. | |
sentence for all of us and no amount of money will ever | :39:35. | :39:38. | |
compensate for that. It has never been about money but finding out | :39:38. | :39:43. | |
the truth. Jill Phillips's family were fortunate a solicitor took | :39:43. | :39:49. | |
their case, confident they stood a chance of winning. She says this is | :39:49. | :39:57. | |
not always the case. I do 10 people know what to make a claim, I will | :39:57. | :40:01. | |
tell nine of them I am sorry but there is no way they are entitled | :40:01. | :40:08. | |
to compensation. They have the alternative option of legal-aid, | :40:08. | :40:18. | |
:40:18. | :40:21. | ||
but that will change as part of government in forms. Reliance will | :40:21. | :40:30. | |
inevitably be pushed up on these lawyers. This is the most | :40:30. | :40:33. | |
controversial of the proposals. It is not as people who support | :40:33. | :40:40. | |
patients who are against the move, but the NHS is also pleading with | :40:40. | :40:48. | |
the Government not to take this step. The NHS can see that legal- | :40:48. | :40:54. | |
aid is by far the most cost- effective. It is far better than | :40:54. | :41:00. | |
these other arrangements. reforms may increase negligence | :41:00. | :41:07. | |
payments further. This will mean more lawyers will have to represent | :41:07. | :41:13. | |
clients under these schemes. They are more expensive for the NHS, so | :41:13. | :41:18. | |
in a sense, reducing legal aid will not reduce access to the lock, | :41:18. | :41:27. | |
because that is well recognised. -- to the law. Patients can still take | :41:27. | :41:30. | |
action but they will do it under these arrangements. It will be more | :41:31. | :41:35. | |
expensive. The Prime Minister wants to tackle the country's | :41:35. | :41:39. | |
compensation culture, which he says has partly led to the increase in | :41:39. | :41:47. | |
pay out. Others say this is not true. It is a common myth. As a | :41:47. | :41:50. | |
charity that deals with people and supports them when they have been | :41:50. | :41:54. | |
affected by things going wrong, we can tell you the vast majority of | :41:54. | :42:02. | |
people do not want to see the NHS, -- do not want to sue the NHS. | :42:02. | :42:09. | |
Clearly this is crucial, to ensure the same as mistakes are not | :42:09. | :42:15. | |
repeated. This could leave other families with fewer options and the | :42:15. | :42:21. | |
NHS with a bigger bill. Joining me is the Conservative MP | :42:22. | :42:27. | |
Mark Reckless. On the last point that Helen made, the NHS is opposed | :42:27. | :42:30. | |
in the government changes because they believe it will cost more in | :42:30. | :42:36. | |
the long run. Is that a possibility? I do not think that is | :42:36. | :42:40. | |
likely. The reason we are bringing in these changes is to reduce the | :42:40. | :42:48. | |
amount of taxpayers' money spent on legal aid. Also we are seeing the | :42:48. | :42:58. | |
:42:58. | :43:00. | ||
taxpayer soon the tax payer. -- suing. We want to see this money | :43:00. | :43:05. | |
spent on patients. Are you sure this will mean there is still an | :43:05. | :43:14. | |
avenue of justice? I think there is. The difference is that solicitors | :43:14. | :43:21. | |
will take on what appeared to be good, clear cases, the changes will | :43:21. | :43:24. | |
mean some cases that are less strong will not go to court in the | :43:25. | :43:31. | |
way they do at the moment. Also, as he said on you clap, most people | :43:31. | :43:38. | |
are not looking for a payout, they want to understand what happened, | :43:38. | :43:42. | |
to know that lessons had been learned. That can be done much | :43:42. | :43:48. | |
better through a proper complaints process than by going to court. | :43:48. | :43:53. | |
said it will save money, but as we heard, many of the solicitors will | :43:53. | :43:56. | |
only take on a case they think is going to win, at clear cut case, | :43:56. | :44:02. | |
but also those cases cost more. They take longer in court. When | :44:02. | :44:05. | |
they settle and are successful lawyer takes a greater amount of | :44:05. | :44:12. | |
money from the NHS. There were two different lines, both cannot be | :44:13. | :44:18. | |
true, one was that these will stop people taking cases the other was | :44:18. | :44:23. | |
that they will make no difference. What do you think? I think it will | :44:23. | :44:28. | |
reduce the number of cases. These Lions will only take strong cases, | :44:28. | :44:32. | |
and the more marginal cases probably will not go to court. What | :44:32. | :44:40. | |
I would like to say is people should have a complaints system | :44:40. | :44:46. | |
that works. Are you not concerned about those people who have no | :44:46. | :44:53. | |
avenue now? I am concerned but the priority for NHS money has to be on | :44:53. | :45:02. | |
treating patients. The amount of money spent on litigation cannot be | :45:02. | :45:06. | |
in anyone's interests. If we can reduce that and improve the | :45:06. | :45:13. | |
complaints procedure, so it is less defensive, the NHS less worried | :45:13. | :45:18. | |
about things, that should allow the NHS to learn lessons easier when | :45:18. | :45:23. | |
things have gone wrong. It will give better satisfaction to the | :45:23. | :45:27. | |
many people know what to understand what happened, and know the NHS is | :45:27. | :45:37. | |
:45:37. | :45:37. | ||
learning the right lessons. Are you concerned an increase in these | :45:38. | :45:43. | |
cases will encourage compensation culture? I do not think so, and I | :45:43. | :45:46. | |
think there is something interesting about the legal aid | :45:46. | :45:53. | |
aspect, it is only really used in about 18 % of cases, so it is quite | :45:53. | :46:02. | |
a small number of cases that refer to be delayed. What we have got | :46:02. | :46:09. | |
here his lawyer's doubling their receipts of fees over the last 10 | :46:09. | :46:16. | |
years, which asked to be wrong. It is absolutely crucial we make | :46:16. | :46:20. | |
public services respond much more effectively to those people they | :46:20. | :46:26. | |
serve. Let's bring in Gill Mitchell, is it possible that the problem | :46:26. | :46:33. | |
here is the standard of care in hospitals? Obviously patience if | :46:33. | :46:37. | |
the Hasted come first, but we what -- what we seem to have here is an | :46:38. | :46:43. | |
inequitable system, tragic cases of people with no choice but to go | :46:43. | :46:49. | |
into these lawyers. I would urge the government to think again about | :46:49. | :46:56. | |
the funding removal. Nobody seems to be listening to the NHS at the | :46:56. | :47:00. | |
moment, not least the government. They know what they're talking | :47:00. | :47:04. | |
about. I have heard a statistic that are claims are amongst the | :47:04. | :47:14. | |
:47:14. | :47:14. | ||
highest in the world. Mark Reckless, what you make of that? We want to | :47:14. | :47:19. | |
reform the NHS because we want to make it better. That is the reason. | :47:19. | :47:23. | |
We cannot allow it to just sit still with expanding life | :47:23. | :47:31. | |
expectancy, we need to put the family doctors in charge. We need | :47:31. | :47:41. | |
:47:41. | :47:42. | ||
to stop this money going on legal claims. We're stopping referral | :47:42. | :47:51. | |
fees for selectors there is, which is another area. Mr Reckless, thank | :47:51. | :48:00. | |
you for joining us. The number of women out of work in and south-east | :48:00. | :48:07. | |
is at its highest, whilst on a planet for men has gone down. -- | :48:07. | :48:13. | |
unemployment for men. That increase is almost twice the national | :48:13. | :48:19. | |
average. Unions say it is because of government cuts in that public | :48:19. | :48:26. | |
sector. Are going into the GMB union, women have suffered almost | :48:26. | :48:34. | |
all the recent job losses. That is worrying. It is always worrying. | :48:34. | :48:39. | |
Female unemployment started under the Labour government, we had 24 % | :48:39. | :48:43. | |
reduction in women being implied. What is crucial is that we change | :48:43. | :48:47. | |
the environment in which women have a much better chance, one of those | :48:47. | :48:53. | |
things is getting nursery care, we want to introduce that much earlier, | :48:53. | :48:57. | |
and also supporting the Low Pay Commission, that is actually | :48:57. | :49:00. | |
putting in an increase in minimum wage. We have to make sure women | :49:00. | :49:08. | |
have an equal position in the workforce, as they do with men. | :49:09. | :49:14. | |
Those statistics are shocking. They will get worse as a result of | :49:14. | :49:19. | |
public cuts. We are also rebalancing it. Across the country | :49:19. | :49:25. | |
there are more women in work, as well. So there is a counterbalance. | :49:25. | :49:28. | |
What we have a problem with is that women are often given part-time | :49:28. | :49:38. | |
:49:38. | :49:39. | ||
work, often the first jobs to go. We need to ensure we get, within | :49:39. | :49:45. | |
the realignment, good quality full- time jobs. Gill Mitchell, as a | :49:45. | :49:50. | |
public sector female employee, do you recognise this picture? Yes I | :49:50. | :49:58. | |
do. The amount of unemployment amongst Women is the highest for 17 | :49:58. | :50:07. | |
years for two main reasons. It is because of a lack of access to | :50:07. | :50:12. | |
affordable childcare. The government is supposed to be tried | :50:12. | :50:16. | |
to increase it, but with the squeeze on local authority budgets, | :50:16. | :50:21. | |
we are seeing children's centres closed, private sector nurseries | :50:21. | :50:26. | |
raising their fees, grants to the voluntary sector nurseries drying | :50:26. | :50:31. | |
up. All this is not helping women who want to work and want to have | :50:31. | :50:35. | |
self sustainable family is. totally agree, this country has the | :50:35. | :50:41. | |
highest cost of childcare any country in Europe. That has been | :50:41. | :50:46. | |
the case for many years because of the regulation, the compliance | :50:46. | :50:52. | |
issues for a chat year, we need to reduce that, make sure... | :50:52. | :50:57. | |
trouble is that the private sector has a lot of business is standing | :50:57. | :51:02. | |
up well, the public sector is taking the head. How do we make | :51:03. | :51:08. | |
sure they imply women? One of the things for women is because we | :51:08. | :51:11. | |
increased the personal allowances, 400,000 women and I no longer | :51:11. | :51:17. | |
paying tax, so it is becoming much better for women to take jobs, and | :51:17. | :51:22. | |
we try to increase flexibility in the market. We need those private | :51:22. | :51:26. | |
companies and small businesses and entrepreneurs to come forward and | :51:27. | :51:31. | |
start employing people. This get back to that -- this get back to | :51:31. | :51:35. | |
the growth agenda. The economy is not growing. It is slipping back. | :51:35. | :51:39. | |
The government has got to start investing in the private sector to | :51:39. | :51:46. | |
generate growth. It has got to have another look at its Cup, -- the | :51:46. | :51:49. | |
cuts in the public sector, because we will pay for the social | :51:50. | :51:56. | |
breakdown. Lots of women are dependent on these jobs. It is | :51:56. | :52:00. | |
extremely important and I totally agree. This is one of the biggest | :52:00. | :52:04. | |
crisis facing the country. There is nothing you are offering to stop | :52:04. | :52:09. | |
his head on women in the public sector. In East Kent we have | :52:09. | :52:12. | |
attracted �40 million additional growth money to go to the private | :52:12. | :52:16. | |
sector for them to employ people. This is going to be an important | :52:17. | :52:26. | |
thing. Any woman facing her job loss, do not worry, you will help | :52:26. | :52:30. | |
them by incentive lies in the private sector? We will do | :52:30. | :52:37. | |
everything we can. We need more critical mass. We will have to | :52:37. | :52:47. | |
:52:47. | :52:50. | ||
leave it there. Time for a round-up of the week's events. The | :52:50. | :52:56. | |
government admitted 500,000 Eurostar passengers were allowed | :52:56. | :53:02. | |
into Kent without proper security checks. Theresa May insisted it was | :53:02. | :53:07. | |
not her fault. The suspensions were completely unauthorised and that is | :53:07. | :53:12. | |
simply not acceptable. Nick Griffin might not be the most | :53:12. | :53:16. | |
PC of politicians, but he confirmed his party will field a candidate in | :53:16. | :53:24. | |
the election to be the Sussex Police Commissioner. Plans to scrap | :53:24. | :53:34. | |
:53:34. | :53:34. | ||
child benefit were attacked by Mark Reckless. He says he is standing up | :53:34. | :53:42. | |
for the squeeze the middle. Hats off to Treacy cried, officially | :53:42. | :53:48. | |
Westminster's most proficient tosser, winning the pancake race. | :53:48. | :53:58. | |
:53:58. | :53:59. | ||
Before we get on to the subject of tossing, interesting position taken | :53:59. | :54:07. | |
by Mark Reckless. What is your view on child benefit? I come from a | :54:07. | :54:13. | |
different constituency, where the average wage is �17,000 per year. | :54:13. | :54:18. | |
From my perspective I feel people at a higher rents should not have | :54:18. | :54:26. | |
to -- should not get the compensation of tell benefit. -- | :54:26. | :54:36. | |
:54:36. | :54:38. | ||
It is not lack of sympathy, but another aspect. Nick Griffin | :54:38. | :54:41. | |
talking about the police commissioner, will that make things | :54:41. | :54:47. | |
more interesting? I do not think contribution is the right word. | :54:47. | :54:52. | |
That party have no contribution to make to British politics, it is | :54:52. | :54:55. | |
another attention-seeking gambit, and they must not be allowed to | :54:55. | :55:01. |