MPS indemnity

Occurrence-based protection

MPS indemnity is provided on an occurrence basis. This means that as long as the practitioner was a member of MPS at the time of the occurrence of an incident, the date on which a claim is brought or reported has no bearing on the right to seek assistance.

Alternative models of indemnity provision usually specify that the practitioner has a policy in place at the time of the incident and at the time that a claim is reported. If there are any gaps in the indemnity cover, changes to the policy or if a policy has ended, then it is likely that no indemnity will be provided – leaving the practitioner facing potential financial ruin and patients without compensation.

The nature of clinical negligence is such that there can be many years, even decades, between the occurrence of an incident and a claim being reported – and, therefore, we believe that the indemnity provided by MPS is the gold standard for professional indemnity, giving peace of mind to members and their patients.

Comprehensive indemnity

MPS indemnity is comprehensive, because we are not restricted by detailed terms and conditions, and other constraints found in insurance policies. We are often able to help members with unusual problems. MPS indemnity rests on the Memorandum and Articles of Association, which specifies that all the benefits of membership are to be granted at the discretion of MPS Council.

This discretion allows us to respond to changes in the medicolegal environment and assist members with unpredictable problems. Our website and the material published in Casebook shows the breadth of problems we help with.

MPS indemnity is not limited by financial caps – nor do we impose a system of excesses. When we take on a member’s case, we take care of all the legal costs and compensation payments. Advances in clinical practice, changing social expectations and political agendas all influence the medicolegal environment to varying degrees. Therefore it is important that members’ indemnity arrangements are assured to be both robust enough to accommodate escalating costs and flexible enough to adjust to new and unusual demands.

For more than a century, MPS comprehensive indemnity has fulfilled just such a need. There have been numerous instances when we have exercised our discretion and assisted members with unusual problems or responded quickly to emerging issues.

It allows us to exercise our discretion to assist members with problems that may not have been foreseen – and therefore not included in a contract of insurance – at the time of an incident.
 
We believe that the combination of occurrence-based and discretionary indemnity provided by MPS offers members the best possible professional protection, and therefore the greatest peace of mind.