A message from the Executive Chair - 31 March 2020

Published: 31 March 2020

Last week MedCo temporarily removed the ban on remote examinations and issued associated guidance.  In response to feedback from Users, and further advice from the Ministry of Justice, the MedCo board has today issued revised guidance  (link updated 3 July 2020) to clarify a number of issues raised.  This guidance will be reviewed on a weekly basis.

Any Direct Medical Experts registered with MedCo and who wish to devote their full time to front line public health services during the current crisis should please mark their account as inactive as soon as possible so that they no longer appear in searches. This will reduce unnecessary administration for those experts and also help authorised users seeking an expert. A useful step by step guide on how to mark an account as inactive can be found here.  

We have also today announced changes to the requirements for payment of annual registration fees.

Our Agreements require 30 days’ notice of any changes to the Charging Policy be given to Users.  MedCo has sought to act quickly to alleviate immediate cash flow concerns for our Users.  To achieve this we have not provided the requisite notice.  We trust in the circumstances there will be no objection to the Board having made this change without notice.  

As previously indicated, during the current public health crisis MedCo’s available resources are being concentrated on providing an uninterrupted service and the monitoring of data in order to ensure that our services continue to be fit for purpose and meet Claimants’ needs.  This may mean it will take longer to respond to non-urgent enquiries.

It is our aim to deal with enquiries that have a common theme by way of regular updates to the MedCo website and the “User Dashboard”.  Users should therefore refer to these on a daily basis for further information.  We are currently finalising amendments to the MedCo FAQs which will be uploaded regularly

Martin Heskins

Executive Chair