Rehabilitation is essential to achieving an outcome after both brain and spinal cord injuries and is often a component of many catastrophic injury claims. Quick access to good rehabilitation plays a key part in the long term prognosis of most of those who suffer life-changing injuries.
Although many patients receive a good standard of acute care at dedicated specialist trauma centres following a brain injury, there can be delays around the provision of NHS rehabilitation, especially when specialist and multi-disciplinary treatment is required.
Accessing early rehabilitation is so important to the one case of acquired brain injury admitted to hospital every 3 minutes in the UK.
For many people, this can be incredibly difficult and expensive to access privately.
When someone has been injured as a result of an accident and it is not their fault there is a possibility of pursuing a personal injury claim and as a consequence, accessing early private rehabilitation. This can have a profound impact on the quality of the recovery of an injury.
Many professionals, as well as members of the public, are unaware of the implication of the Rehabilitation Code in personal injury law. This Code prioritises rehabilitation and provides for an Immediate Needs Assessment(INA) which will assess and provide recommendation for treatment.
The INA will consider the injured person’s physical, social and psychological needs. If this process is carried out early, it will also assist in establishing the value of any future interim payments to be requested on behalf of the injured person.
The money secured under the Rehabilitation Code can be used to pay for private medical treatment which can include:
- ongoing rehabilitation,
- the provision of aids and equipment,
- adapted accommodation and
- putting in place a system of care,
- support from a case manager can also be funded.
All of this can help to maximise the injured person’s recovery and improve their ongoing quality of life.
Accessing early rehabilitation is vitally important for anyone who has suffered a brain injury.
When you are considering pursuing a compensation claim following a brain injury it is incredibly important that you instruct a specialist solicitor who has experience of successfully conducting such high-value cases. A failure to instruct a specialist could lead to delays in obtaining funding for critical rehabilitation which in turn may have a negative effect on an individual’s recovery.
