Medical indemnity guidance from the BMA

The BMA has recently updated their site with some medical indemnity guidance for GPs.
Included in this guidance is their assertion that clinicians working in primary care will still need to retain their MDO membership.

This is an approach that we support and welcome, as it will offer those working in general practice the widest scope of protection. When introduced next year, the state-backed scheme is set to cover the cost for clinical negligence claims arising from NHS contracted work. What it won’t include is any support with problems that arise from your professional practice, such as complaints, GMC inquiries, inquests and disciplinary proceedings.

We believe that many GPs value this ‘professional protection’ element of their membership with Medical Protection and will want to retain it - which is what the BMA are recommending.

The introduction of the state-backed scheme will mean that there are changes to your membership with us and we understand that you will have questions about this. To help you, we have answered a number of these questions here – including:

• the cost of membership once the state-backed scheme is introduced
• the difference between Medical Protection membership and the state-backed scheme
• what you need to do if you are due to renew soon.

We are still waiting for the Government to provide more detail regarding how the state-backed scheme will work, but we can confirm that if you choose to retain your membership with us once the state-backed scheme launches – in the same way that NHS hospital doctors do, you can expect to pay considerably less for it. This is because the potential cost of clinical negligence claims accounts for a significant amount of the monies we collect from members. Removing or reducing the indemnity component of your membership when you move to the state-backed scheme will therefore reduce the cost of your membership subscription.

You will also have the opportunity to tailor your membership to include – at an additional cost – the right to request indemnity for claims arising from any private or fee-paying work you undertake.