Ensuring the quality of medical reporting is one of MedCo’s key aims.

MedCo has recently seen an uptick in complaints about errors in medical reports, most of which appear to result from experts failing to check the contents of the report before signing it.

Sometimes the errors result in the report making no sense, for example stating that a claimant sitting in the back of a car injured their knee due to contact with the dashboard or steering column. We have also seen examples of children being described as unable to work and experiencing anxiety whilst driving. Upon investigation, we are often advised that these are “typographical errors”.

It seems unlikely that these are typographical errors, it is more likely that the errors are driven by the software that the expert is using, and inadequate or inappropriate software is not an acceptable reason for inaccuracies.

At the very least these errors lead to the delay and inconvenience of reports having to be returned to experts for amendment.  The position is worse if the error is not identified by the MRO, claimant, or their solicitor and the report is sent to the compensator; as this can lead to the compensator challenging the claimant’s credibility.

The expert’s duty is to the court, and all reports must be thoroughly checked before they are signed, bearing in mind the report includes a statement of truth.  The duty is the expert’s alone and cannot be passed on to the MRO or instructing solicitor.

Monitoring will continue and appropriate action will be taken to address poor quality reporting