Industrial Injury Claim: What you should do before claiming compensation in the UK
Industrial injury claim what you should do? Find out why it may take some time before you realise you are suffering an industrial disease; the practical steps you should take as soon as you become aware of your occupational injury to ensure you receive the correct medical treatment and your disease is properly recorded by your employer.
Why can it take some time for you to realise that you are suffering symptoms of an industrial injury?
Workers who have suffered an industrial injury will tell you that their symptoms probably took a long time to first appear. Even when the symptoms did appear they may have been mistaken for another more innocent illness – like the common cold.
For example:
1. Imagine you are a factory worker in an asbestos mill. After a few years you develop a cough, but you think nothing of it – presuming you have a cold. Your cough persists and as the years go by you slowly develop a shortness of breath, but again think nothing of it – presuming you are not exercising enough and are just getting older,
More years pass and you start rapidly losing weight and at this stage seek help from your GP. Your doctor initially presumes the symptoms you are suffering from are as a result of you smoking, but when he enquiries into your job he realises your symptoms may actually be due to inhalation of asbestos dust.
You are sent to see a consultant and chest x rays are performed at which stage you are diagnosed with asbestosis lung disease caused from inhaling asbestos fibres. You realise that the symptoms you have suffered for years are actually due to an industrial injury.
Industrial Injury Claim Workers Lung Disease
2. You are a secretary working in a small company, which has recently purchased a new computer system. You are asked to assist in transferring data from the old system to the new. Your boss wants the transition to take place as quickly as possible, so you work full time on the task and do several hours overtime each day without regular breaks.
After a month – your right wrist starts to cause you a little aching pain. You presume it is just from exercising in the gym, but as time goes by the pain gets worse and spreads to your hand – eventually becoming so bad that you cannot type and are forced to take time off work.
You see your GP who realises that your pain had nothing to do with exercising in the gym, but was more likely due to a repetitive strain injury from constant typing at high speed without a regular break.
It has taken you months to realise that you are suffering a form of industrial injury.
In these two examples – you have seen how you can suffer symptoms for months or even years before you realise their cause.
If you are suffering any form of persistent symptom at work – it is important you inform your employer and see your GP as soon as possible, but don’t forget to tell your GP what type of work you do so he will not mistake your symptom for something more innocent.
What should you do to assist your claim as soon as you realise you are suffering symptoms of an industrial injury?
An industrial injury is just a type of accident at work – once you realise you have suffered any form of injury at work the immediate practical steps you should take are the same:
Click workplace accident compensation claim to see the 10 steps you should take as soon as you realise you are suffering symptoms of an industrial injury.
You now know why it can take some time for you to realise you are suffering from an industrial injury as well as the important steps you should take to ensure your employer records your injury details and you receive the correct medical treatment.
Sometimes your employer may disagree with you as to how your accident happened, so it is important you know what records you can rely on to prove your industrial injury claim:
Click industrial accident claim. to see the records your employer should keep which will assist in proving your industrial injury claim.
Online industrial injury claim solicitor free help
If you would like to ask a question, discuss your work exposure or have your potential industrial injury claim assessed online – see our occupational injury solicitor online help.
