Rehabilitation – is the development, to the maximum degree possible, of an individual’s function and/or role, both mentally and physically, within their family and social networks, society and within the workplace where ever possible.

“Every episode of “healthcare” should have a rehabilitation outcome.” Col John Etherington, National Clinical Director for Rehabilitation, NHS England.

The NHS provides world-class healthcare services for most people, most of the time.  However, rehabilitation and returning patients back to their activities of normal daily living are often not key objectives for the NHS.  A recent NHS England guidance document may over time start to change this, but in the mean time there are significant gaps in rehabilitation provision for most patients.

Personal injury claimants need not experience these gaps in provision as they are often entitled to rehabilitation services to help them return to their pre-accident levels of function as part of the claims process.

The 2015 Rehabilitation Code of Best Practice for personal injury claims came into effect in December 2015 in order to improve access to care and treatment for personal injury victims.  A summary of the new code can be viewed here.

But to hear about why the new code is needed from the perspective of an injury victim you might like to watch this video.

Hear about how the new rehabilitation code affects the personal injury claims process from both a claimant and defendants perspective.