In reply to Gills:
> I'm not sure that the same would work for us in the private sector, their solicitors (and therefore themselves) are paying for it. They don't really care what resources are used then.But sure if they are seeing us atleast they aren't wasting nhs resources and keeping me in a job at the same time!
Unfortunately, from an NHS physio' viewpoint, the prior input from the private sector can add to our workload: After an 'incident', claimants often get rapid ( well more rapid than the NHS ) access to the insurance company physio who - and this is a sweeping generalisation- usually treats them passively. They get a few sessions and then they're shunted onto the NHS, as unfinished business.
By the time we see them in the NHS, this lack of active self management by the claimant+ all the catastrophising mindset that accompanies e.g. the term 'whiplash'+the litigation factor, can mean it's a bit of an uphill battle to get them back on the road to recovery.
Malleson points to the increasing incidence of whiplash in former soviet countries, which is in direct proportion to the growth of personal insurance after the disintegration of the USSR. Whiplash is perhaps off -topic, but this last example does tend to indicate that it's not just 'if there's blame, there's a claim', but also 'if there's a litigation system that promotes spurious claims, there's a claim.'