A Statutory Instrument (SI) has been laid before Parliament this week ahead of the state-backed GP indemnity scheme launch on 1st of April 2019.The SI amends the National Health Service Act 2006 and among other issues, it specifies the liabilities covered under the Scheme and the persons who are eligible for the purposes of it.

Commenting, Rob Hendry, Medical Director at Medical Protection, said:

"With less than five weeks to go until the state-backed scheme launches, it is good to see that the legislation underpinning the scheme has now been put in place.

"These regulations make it clear that the state-backed scheme will only provide indemnity against clinical negligence claims which relate to the provision of NHS contracted work. We can’t stress enough that GPs will still need to have their own claims indemnity for any non-NHS work they do – such as providing tele-consultations for private firms, writing medical reports or doing medicolegal work. 

"The state-backed indemnity scheme also won’t provide support for things such as GMC inquiries, complaints, inquests and disciplinary proceedings. It is important that GPs maintain membership with an MDO so they can continue to request this support, just as NHS doctors do.

“GPs in England and Wales will pay considerably less for their Medical Protection membership once the state-backed indemnity is introduced. This is because the potential cost of clinical negligence claims accounts for a significant amount of the membership subscription they currently pay. Removing or reducing the indemnity component when they move to the new scheme will therefore reduce the cost of their membership subscription. We will be confirming the price of membership to members shortly”.

ENDS

Additional information about the state-backed indemnity scheme and what it will mean for GPs and their Medical Protection membership can be found here.

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