Former health secretary Frank Dobson is to be taken to the European Court of Human Rights in a case involving the NHS "clawback" scheme.
Frank Adlam, 57, a former policeman, claims the Department of Health destroyed his livelihood after he suggested a method for speeding up the collection of cash from insurance companies to treat road accident victims.
It is claimed Dobson took the idea but then created a state monopoly to collect the cash and voiding the contracts Adlam had with local NHS hospitals through his firm, the National Road Traffic Accident Claims Centre, in Northamptonshire.
Instead, the Government set up the Compensation Recovery Unit, promising up to £165m for the NHS.
In fact, the system by which hospitals claw back money from insurers in third party road accident cases is decades old.
But traditionally, only about 15% is collected out of a total which could be as high as £140m a year.
Nigel Munns, of actuary Bacon & Woodrow said: "The NHS has been pretty inefficient in the past in collecting insurance cash."
"If they were 100% efficient, they could get up to £105m." But Munns agreed it was not always easy to establish the right details and insurer following a road accident.
In the case of Adlam, he said there may be a case for redress if the Government actually broke existing contracts with him.
