The recommendation for mandatory indemnity for healthcare professionals is not before time, said the Medical Defence Union (MDU), but it is disappointed that the recommendations do not go far enough.

Responding to the publication today of an independent review of the requirement to have insurance or indemnity as a condition of registration as a healthcare professional,1 Dr Christine Tomkins, MDU chief executive said:

"Patients should be properly compensated if a doctor or dentist makes a negligent mistake. So we welcome today's recommendation that healthcare professionals should have mandatory indemnity and indeed many patients will be surprised that it is not already a legal requirement.

"We are disappointed however that the review has not recommended that mandatory indemnity for doctors and dentists should be through regulated insurance policies which ensure patients are fully compensated if they are negligently harmed. This would be the right solution where NHS indemnity is not in place.

"In the research carried out as part of the review, all the participants agreed that it was very important for healthcare professionals to have insurance, with one respondent commenting: 'Everyone has got insurance, you've got car insurance, house insurance, so why shouldn't doctors have insurance?' 2. However, patients may not realise that around 50 per cent of doctors and 70 per cent of dentists are not insured and still rely on discretionary indemnity. We are astonished that the review specifically chose not to address the question of whether discretion is an acceptable form of indemnity given that it provides only a right to ask for assistance and no right to receive it. If discretionary assistance is not provided, patients may go uncompensated. This seems to us to be the very opposite of what was intended. We hope the Government takes this vital omission into account as it considers this report and recommendations.

"We provided a detailed response to the review in which we explained that we believe it is in the public interest that healthcare professionals are insured. We are still the only mutual medical defence organisation to provide doctors and dentists with insurance. We strongly believe the review has missed an opportunity to protect patients by not recommending there should be an explicit and enforceable means of paying for negligence claims. "

Further information

1. Independent review of the requirement to have insurance or indemnity as a condition of registration as a healthcare professional, Finlay Scott, published by Department of Health, 14 July 2010. See here

2. Department of Health insurance and indemnity policy review stakeholder engagement exercise - key findings, Final Report, May 2010, page 13. See here

Source:
MDU