Bid to recover NHS cost of treating Absestos victims

Employers who exposed workers to deadly asbestos could be forced to reimburse the NHS for medical costs of treating asbestos victims if new legislation goes ahead.

Llanelli Assembly Member Keith Davies is supporting Mick Antoniw, AM for Pontypridd in his bid to bring forward the Asbestos (Recovery of Medical Costs) Bill 2012 as a Private Members Bill at the National Assembly.

Mick Antoniw AM worked as a solicitor at legal practice Thompsons which has acted for thousands of asbestos victims and their families over the years. He has seen the suffering of asbestos disease, particularly from the invariably fatal asbestos cancer mesothelioma and the misery this brings to bereaved families. He believes that negligent employers, or their insurers, should be held accountable for the cost borne by a financially hard pressed NHS of the ill health suffered by their employees through asbestos exposure.

Hundreds of Welsh workers suffer from asbestos related disease and exposure to asbestos has caused thousands more deaths over the past decades. Many victims suffer prolonged and often progressive ill health leading to premature death. It is estimated that the human cost will continue for decades with the peak in mortality not expected until at least 2015.

Keith Davies AM said: “I’m backing this Bill because I know that asbestos has been a problem locally, for example at the old Carmarthen Bay Power Station in Burry Port. I want to make sure that the NHS recovers costs to reinvest in support for asbestos sufferers and their families. The cost of treating asbestos disease places a huge financial strain on an already over-stretched NHS in Wales. I believe that where an employer has been negligent and civil compensation is due NHS Wales should be reimbursed with the cost of medical treatment.”

For many of those suffering from asbestos disease, negligence and breaches of health and safety law by former employers can be established in civil actions for compensation brought by sufferers and their families.

Among the main workplaces where asbestos exposure occurred are power stations, steel works, shipyards, lagging industry, boiler manufacture, engineering and construction. The risk of asbestos exposure also exists in buildings, including public sector workplaces and schools, where asbestos materials are present.