Extended liability
Membership grants the right to request indemnity in relation to your own clinical practice. However, as an owner or partner in a practice you may be responsible for liability arising from other elements of the business, for example:
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vicarious liability for the acts and omissions of other healthcare professionals or staff at your practice;
- liability for products that are sold at your practice;
- liability in relation to the safety of the practice environment; and
- liability for non-clinical matters such as taxes and the performance of contracts entered into by or on behalf of your practice.
In addition, for practices structured as unlimited liability partnerships, partners are jointly and severally liable for actions brought against the partnership, so you may be liable for the actions or omissions of a fellow partner.
It is important to understand that the subscription for an individual Medical Protection member is calculated on the basis of the risk represented by that member alone. In the interests of fairness across the membership as a whole, where you are exposed to additional liabilities (such as those listed above), you do not have the right request indemnity for matters beyond your own clinical practice, unless your membership grade is expressly extended to cover these. There are various additional packages that Medical Protection offers, to help you manage some of the wider risk that you might face in the course of your practice:
UK GP Membership
Given the typical structure of general medical practices in the UK, we offer additional benefits in the GP membership category, including for solo practitioners and those practising in an unlimited partnership. It is likely that, in addition to the standard benefits of membership, UK GPs would be granted assistance with requests relating to claims of negligence against any of their employed non-clinical administrative staff (e.g. the practice manager, receptionists and secretaries), or in relation to clinical staff such as health care assistants, phlebotomists, and dispensers where it can be shown that such staff were acting under appropriately delegated authority and were adequately trained, supervised, working to practice protocols and not making ‘standalone’ clinical judgments.
Find out more about GP membership
Practice Xtra membership
GP practices (structured as unlimited liability partnerships) can enrol in the Practice Xtra programme, which provides discounted membership for other clinical staff, grants membership to certain employed staff in their own right, and gives a practice access to advice on employment law and health and safety, as well as to other risk management services.
Find out more about Practice Xtra
Corporate membership
Limited companies can apply to MPS for membership in their own right. Corporate membership can be tailored to the needs and risks of your business and (for example) can provide the company, and the officers of the company, with access to assistance and indemnity in respect of the defence and/or settlement of clinical negligence claims made against the company. Corporate members may also apply for assistance in dealing with complaints and managing adverse incidents arising from an employee’s clinical work, and liability-capped and claims-made options are also available.
Find out more about corporate and group membership
Find out more about the limitations of MPS membership