whiplash crash testToby Melville/PA Archive/Press Association Images

The booming trade in whiplash claims after car accidents has prompted three GP surgeries to start charging people who come in asking to have their injuries checked out for an insurance claim.

But why have they started charging, and will they succeed?

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Why?

The move from GPs is completely within the law. The Road Traffic Act 1988, says doctors can charge £21.30 to diagnose and treat whiplash. According to a report in the Daily Mail the charges have been brought in by three NHS walk-in centres in Sheffield run by One Medicare. The company said it was in response to an 'increase in activity'.

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Rising claims

Claims for whiplash have rocketed in recent years. There are now 1,500 claims on car insurance policies for the injury every day - which is up a third in the last three years despite a fall in the number of road accidents. Whiplash injury claims cost insurers over £2 billion last year, which adds around £90 to the cost of a typical car insurance policy.

The government has pledged to clamp down on the claims industry, but there has been anger at how long this has taken. Simon Douglas, director of AA Insurance, says that there has now been enough talking, and he now wants to see "a tight timescale applied to reform of the civil litigation which at present, encourages people to make a claim regardless of how serious their injury is or even if they have not suffered injury at all. Importantly, we need reforms that clamp down on cold-call claims management and personally injury firms who have contributed to the growth of claims."

In the interim, drivers have been increasingly aggravated. A recent survey from Moneysupermarket found that 66% of people thought it was time the government did something to halt the compensation culture, and 27% are annoyed false whiplash claims are bumping up insurance costs.

Will it work?

The question is whether this particular move will achieve anything. Many of the doctors that charge claim they do so in order to put people off making false claims. However, with potential rewards for a claim often exceeding £2,000, you have to ask whether this is going to act as any kind of disincentive.

Instead, as whiplash claims run rampant across the country, GPs have become the latest group to find themselves cashing in on the trend.

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