Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on general practitioners of the affordability of personal medical indemnity.

The Department and NHS England committed in the recently published General Practice Forward View to review the current arrangements for indemnity cover for general practitioners (GPs).

To take this review forward, a General Practice Indemnity Steering Group was established by the Department with NHS England to look at the rising cost of indemnity, which resulted in an announcement that NHS England would provide a financial support package this year and next to assist GPs with rises they may be facing in their indemnity premia. NHS England also committed to run a winter indemnity scheme in 2016-17, and to provide support to GPs experiencing indemnity inflation as a result of their out-of-hours activity. A number of other measures to address the root causes of rising indemnity costs were also announced.

This review gathered evidence about the impact of the rising cost of indemnity on GPs, and specifically sought representations from GPs via a survey which asked about their personal experiences of indemnity costs and how this had affected them. The survey received over 4,500 responses from individual GPs. The review also held several discussions with GP representative groups.

The survey of GPs suggested that indemnity costs rose, on average, by around 7% per annum in the last five years. Data published by the medical defence organisations, who provide indemnity cover to GPs, suggested that this inflation was closer to 10% per year. The review judged the latter figure to be more accurate. The review also considered funding for expenses as part of the GP contract, which in 2016-17 was topped up by £33 million specifically for increased indemnity costs. The review concluded that overall, in the last five years, GP indemnity costs have risen as a proportion of GP income.

The Department holds no data on the number of GPs who have ceased practising in the last five years as a result of the costs of personal medical indemnity in England and each English region.

The survey of GPs indicated that the rising cost of indemnity may sometimes deter GPs for taking on additional sessions, and some GPs told the review that the cost of indemnity may also influence their willingness to join the profession, to remain in the profession, or to increase their workload.