Medical Appeal Tribunals

Records of, and relating to, the Medical Appeal Tribunal. This series contains files of individual cases, arranged alphabetically and chronologically, that went before the tribunal between 1948 and 1993. The files include correspondence, tribunal decisions, medical histories, and reports submitted to the tribunal by GPs, surgeons, psychiatrists and other medical specialists.

The Medical Appeal Tribunal was created by the National Insurance (Industrial Injuries) Act 1946, which commenced in July 1948. Under the act, any claim for industrial injury benefit, or any question relating to a claim or an award, was submitted to an Insurance Officer employed by the Ministry of National Insurance in one of its local offices, such as Alfreton, Chesterfield and Ilkeston. 'Special questions', which could not be dealt with by the Insurance Officer because they required medical expertise, were referred to a Medical Board. Medical Boards were responsible for determining whether an accident or prescribed disease resulted in a loss of faculty; whether a loss of faculty was likely to be permanent; at what degree the disablement was to be assessed, and the period taken into account by the assessment. If a claimant was dissatisfied with the decision of a Medical Board, the case would be referred to a Medical Appeal Tribunal.

Medical Boards, in the beginning, consisted of two or more medical practitioners, one of whom would be chairman; Medical Appeal Tribunals consisted of a chairman and two medical practitioners.

Changes in the machinery of government meant that between 1948 and 1988 the tribunal process was overseen by the Ministry of National Insurance, Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance, Ministry of Social Security and the Department of Health and Social Security (DHSS).