The car insurance information contained within these pages is based on information supplied by The Claims Guru, a site packed with useful information about the inner workings of insurance companies and their products.
Policy Clauses - Emergency Treatment Fees
Under current UK legislation, you must pay fees to the first medical practitioner to give you treatment in an accident. This is incorporated in the Road Traffic Act.
Some people call this a charge for an ambulance. Strictly speaking this is not correct but in practice it is usually the ambulance paramedics that provide the medical treatment and the account comes to you from the N H S Trust that supplied the ambulance and its crew.
YOU MUST PAY THIS BY LAW irrespective of who was to blame for the accident. Your insurer will meet the cost under this section. Just send the account into them and they will pay it directly to the N H S trust. Or pay it yourself and ask your insurer to reimburse you.
"To avoid hitting the bumper of the car in front I stuck a pedestrian."
Extracts taken from actual claim forms submitted to
a number of UK car insurance companies
Occasionally in a busy insurance office, the claims staff can overlook the account if you have sent it in with other papers. Indeed you might receive a reminder from the N H S trust. Tell the N H S Trust who your insurers are and telephone your claims office. Be firm but please don't be angry.
Payment of this account in itself does not affect your no claims bonus. It is not regarded as a claim. So, in the unlikely event your insurers were to pay this and nothing else your bonus remains intact. But in an accident where someone is injured, it is unlikely there is no other types of claim to be met.
Technically, if someone else is to blame for the accident you can send this account on to their insurer but you are just asking for unnecessary hassle. My advice is, don't bother. It makes no difference to you either way.
Owing to recent changes in the law, hospitals now also charge insurers for treatment given to victims of accidents, with certain limits applied. These are paid to the hospital in cases where you have been negligent and someone else has had treatment for the injury you caused. THIS HAS PUSHED UP THE COST OF CLAIMS SETTLEMENTS AND CONSEQUENTLY YOUR PREMIUMS.
Some insurance professionals consider that this is a further case of "stealth tax" taxation by the Government.
