MEDICO LEGAL M A G A Z I N E
NEW INDUSTRY BODY LAUNCHED
TO REPRESENT MEDICAL REPORTING ORGANISATIONS By Paul Collin, Secretary of the CMA
The Confederation of Medical Agencies, launched in March, aims to offer a true voice and representation for the smaller Medical Reporting Organisations who currently have no voice within the industry and no presence at MedCo meetings. It is clear that The Association of Medical Reporting Organisations (AMRO) have failed to step up to the mark of representing the interests of all MROs, as they only have members from Tier 1 companies on their executive committee and whilst their website claims they represent 21 companies, research has shown that a large number of those companies either do not exist, or haven’t heard of AMRO or paid them any membership fees for a number of years. Ben Elsom, the Managing Director for Medical Reports Limited, a Tier 2 company and a previous AMRO member that has been trading for 16 years is to become the confederation’s inaugural president. He comments “I have no grievances in Tier 1 companies having a voice, but AMRO does not represent the interests of ‘all’ as a Trade Association should and therefore in my opinion has become irrelevant and defunct as an industry representative body.” The goals of the confederation are to be: A. A central representative body to put the views of Medical Reporting Organisations companies to the appropriate Government departments, MEDCO, agencies, and other relevant organisations.
Sp o n s o re d by:
B. To be a research and statistical centre, to aggregate and publish statistics, and to provide analysis on MROs and other relevant market information. C. To be a technical centre providing commentary, guidance and advice on all legal and other regulatory developments of relevance to MROS. D. To provide a forum for the exchange of non-competitive information. E. To promote its MRO members. The Confederation will have 6 executive committee members. Paul Collin, who has recently retired having spent 20 years in the medico-legal industry has agreed to be the Confederation’s secretary. Other members of the inaugural committee include Peter Laithwaite of Citimedical and Simon Munro of Med Report Services Ltd, both senior figures with a longstanding involvement in the industry. Over 50 MROs have already committed to joining the organisation and other members are welcome to apply. The CMA intends to make a formal representation to the Chair of MedCo following its inaugural general meeting later this month. All enquiries can be made to CMA Secretary Paul Collin at secretary@c-m-a.org.uk www.c-m-a.org.uk
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