Employers are to be made to pay the NHS for treating staff injured at work in a move that is expected to save the health service about £150m a year.
Rosie Winterton, the health minister, published draft regulations yesterday giving the NHS power to recoup the cost from insurers.
The NHS will charge a standard rate of £473 for treatment in accident and emergency and £582 a day if the patient has to be admitted to a hospital ward.
Companies are already required to take out liability insurance to provide compensation for staff injured at work. Under the new scheme the insurers will be required to alert the NHS whenever compensation is paid, allowing hospitals to reclaim treatment costs.
The cost is likely to be borne by employers through higher premiums. Ministers hope this will create pressure for a safer working environment.
For the past five years the NHS has been able to recoup the cost of treating people injured in traffic accidents who have made a successful compensation claim. It reclaims £105m a year.
By charging for workplace accidents, the NHS will increase this income to more than £250m - equivalent to 53,000 hip operations and 11,000 newly qualified nurses.
Ms Winterton said: "It is unacceptable that taxpayers have to pay for the medical treatment of someone injured at work simply because employers fail to take adequate steps to protect their workforce.
"Individual hospitals will now be able to recover the costs and decide where they want to reinvest that money to improve services they want."
Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the TUC, said: "It is important that negligent employers pay the full cost of their actions, rather than expecting the taxpayers to subsidise their failures to protect workers."
"However, it is also important that this is not just seen as another cost to be added to insurance premiums and instead is used by the insurance industry as an incentive to improve the measures that employers take to prevent injuries at work."
The union Amicus said: "Anything that forces bad employers to face up their responsibilities is a step forward. Silly mistakes are costing the NHS and the economy as a whole millions every year".
