The Medical Defence Union (MDU) is calling on the government to specify in the Health & Social Care Bill how services commissioned by GPs should be indemnified so that patients negligently harmed will be properly compensated. The MDU has written to MPs, ahead of today's debate on the Bill, to point out that the fact that indemnity is not mentioned is a serious omission which needs addressing urgently.

The MDU's Professional Services Director, Dr Matthew Lee, said:

"The fact that both the white paper and the Bill are silent on the arrangements for clinical negligence indemnity is causing uncertainty among our members. They want to know what indemnity arrangements will be in place for services commissioned by local consortia and the extent to which they might be individually liable. It is vital that the proposals for change are underpinned by clear arrangements for indemnity.

"It seems likely that responsibility for clinical negligence claims will lie with the providers and not the GPs commissioning the services. But this is far from clear and before entering into agreements, GP consortia will need to be satisfied that providers take responsibility for compensating any patients who are negligently harmed by them.

"It goes without saying that such indemnity must be adequate and appropriate to ensure patients will be properly compensated, whether through NHS indemnity or separate arrangements. We believe GP consortia and patient and consumer representatives can only be certain of this if the indemnity comes from an NHS body or through a policy of insurance from a regulated insurance company.

"We will be happy to ensure our members' indemnity needs are met by the changes being proposed to care commissioning by the Bill, but it must be clear where the responsibility lies. Our main concern is that our members should not drop through the indemnity net potentially leaving them unindemnified and their patients uncompensated."

* The MDU's briefing on indemnity and the Health & Social Care Bill is available here.

Source:
MDU