Lack Of UK Indemnity Insurance Puts Patients At Risk

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October 2, 2008

According to the UK’s leading medical defence organisation, the UK is one of the last countries in the EU to carry on with an outdated system of indemnifying doctors. As a result, current policies could lead to a higher and unnecessary risk to patients being uncompensated in the event of clinical negligence.

In the majority of developed countries, including large EU member states like France and Germany, doctors and dentists are required to have professional indemnity insurance to protect their patients in the event of negligently being harmed.

There is insurance in the UK however, there is also “discretionary indemnity” which allows the practitioner to “request assistance and have the request considered”, says MedicalNewsToday.com.

The Medical Defence Union, which provides its members with a clinical negligence insurance policy, feels the current lack of indemnity insurance regulation is detrimental to UK patients and doctors alike.

MDU chief executive Dr Michael Saunders said, “In this current medico-legal and economic climate, we cannot understand why the UK still allows unregulated indemnity. The UK has fallen far behind other EU states on this. A German patient who was treated in the UK and negligently harmed by a doctor who was reliant on discretionary indemnity might not be compensated if the indemnifier decided not to assist with the claim. Of course, a German patient who was treated and harmed at home by an insured doctor would receive insured compensation. There is now an opportunity to resolve this anomaly.”

“When damages are awarded in negligence cases it is imperative that patients know they will receive the compensation due to them. The UK has some of the most forward-thinking and technically advanced doctors in the EU but discretionary indemnity is distinctly last century.”

What do you think? Would you feel more comfortable if your doctor or dentist had professional indemnity insurance in case of accidental or, God forbid, intentional negligence?

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