MPS indemnity

Giving you the best possible protection from the costs of clinical negligence claims

Occurrence-based protection

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 has traditionally been 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 adverse incident, the date on which a claim is brought or reported has no bearing on the right to seek assistance. Help can be sought at any time even if it is years after the adverse event occurred.

In our view this type of indemnity has significant advantages over alternative models. It provides maximum peace of mind as members do not have to make any further financial arrangements for long term protection after membership comes to an end. It also provides maximum flexibility if a member’s circumstances change.

The alternative model of indemnity is known as claims-made indemnity. Whilst it may be cheaper in the early years of membership it is also more complex. This is because the doctor is deferring paying for protection for some of their risk. With claims-made indemnity protection must be in place at the time of the adverse incident, at the time any claim or complaint resulting from the adverse incident is reported and continuously in between.

Comprehensive indemnity

MPS indemnity is not limited by financial caps – nor do we impose a system of excesses

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 can take care of all the required 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 MPS’s indemnity, provided on a discretionary basis and combined with decades of accumulated expertise offers members the greatest peace of mind.