Injury at work. Should I see a GP

innocentparker

A chair I was sat on at work collapsed completely throwing me onto the floor. It was logged in the accident book at the time by a the boss. I’ve got whiplash type symptoms, neck and back pain and I intend to make an injury claim. I’ve had a whiplash injury previously and other than Ibuprofen there wasn’t much the GP could do which I accept. Do I really need to see a GP to back up my injury claim as I really don’t want to waste GP valuable time.? 

Brie

Ring your GP at the very least to ensure that it's noted on your health record.  If there's any bruising on your backside at all I'd also suggest you get someone to take some discrete photos to add to your complaint.  

elsien

I’m not sure simply ringing a GP is going to be sufficient to have anything recorded that would be any use as evidence.
 You can’t make any sort of claim on your word alone. I can just see their legal team team pulling apart “yes I’ve got whiplash, no it wasn’t bad enough to need to see any sort of medical professional about .” 

You would probably also need to show negligence on the part of the employer and that they were aware the chair was faulty and did nothing about it. And some sort of damage that lasts more than a couple of days.

You should also take into account to the impact that this is likely to have on your relationship with your employer and whether it is worth it or not. 

To me this is an example of compo culture gone mad.

Tabieth

innocentparker said:

A chair I was sat on at work collapsed completely throwing me onto the floor. It was logged in the accident book at the time by a the boss. I’ve got whiplash type symptoms, neck and back pain and I intend to make an injury claim. I’ve had a whiplash injury previously and other than Ibuprofen there wasn’t much the GP could do which I accept. Do I really need to see a GP to back up my injury claim as I really don’t want to waste GP valuable time.? 

You need to get medical attention to make sure any injuries are being correctly treated. That’s most important. You also need any injuries formally diagnosed and logged if you’re planning on making a claim. 

itsthelittlethings

Tabieth said:

innocentparker said:

A chair I was sat on at work collapsed completely throwing me onto the floor. It was logged in the accident book at the time by a the boss. I’ve got whiplash type symptoms, neck and back pain and I intend to make an injury claim. I’ve had a whiplash injury previously and other than Ibuprofen there wasn’t much the GP could do which I accept. Do I really need to see a GP to back up my injury claim as I really don’t want to waste GP valuable time.? 

You need to get medical attention to make sure any injuries are being correctly treated. That’s most important. You also need any injuries formally diagnosed and logged if you’re planning on making a claim. 

This.

Its completely unacceptable to have chairs that collapse.

swingaloo

Surely in order to have a claim you have to have an injury.

If you have a proper injury then you need to see a doctor.

If you don't need to see a doctor then it cant be much of an injury.

So is it an injury or do you just want a claim?

Marcon

itsthelittlethings said:

Tabieth said:

innocentparker said:

A chair I was sat on at work collapsed completely throwing me onto the floor. It was logged in the accident book at the time by a the boss. I’ve got whiplash type symptoms, neck and back pain and I intend to make an injury claim. I’ve had a whiplash injury previously and other than Ibuprofen there wasn’t much the GP could do which I accept. Do I really need to see a GP to back up my injury claim as I really don’t want to waste GP valuable time.? 

You need to get medical attention to make sure any injuries are being correctly treated. That’s most important. You also need any injuries formally diagnosed and logged if you’re planning on making a claim. 

This.

Its completely unacceptable to have chairs that collapse.

Depends. If it was a folding chair that OP assembled incorrectly...

swingaloo

Marcon said:

itsthelittlethings said:

Tabieth said:

innocentparker said:

A chair I was sat on at work collapsed completely throwing me onto the floor. It was logged in the accident book at the time by a the boss. I’ve got whiplash type symptoms, neck and back pain and I intend to make an injury claim. I’ve had a whiplash injury previously and other than Ibuprofen there wasn’t much the GP could do which I accept. Do I really need to see a GP to back up my injury claim as I really don’t want to waste GP valuable time.? 

You need to get medical attention to make sure any injuries are being correctly treated. That’s most important. You also need any injuries formally diagnosed and logged if you’re planning on making a claim. 

This.

Its completely unacceptable to have chairs that collapse.

Depends. If it was a folding chair that OP assembled incorrectly...

Ive also seen people leaning back on the back 2 legs on chairs at work. Was the chair faulty, different from anyone elses, did you have witnesses to the chair collapsing?
It would be very odd for a chair to just collapse.

elsien

Yes, I had a rather large work colleague who used to do the leaning back on the office chair thing. I did tell him if it broke it was completely his fault.

itsthelittlethings

If you’ve had whiplash before (and not sued that time perhaps), it might be worth seeing the GP.

TELLIT01

You will certainly need to provide solidy evidence of injury serious enough to claim compensation for.  Simply falling of an chair and claiming you know you have whiplash because you've had it before will not be enough.