Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the number of general practitioners available to work for National Health Service out of hours services following changes in the costs of medical indemnity.
Medical indemnity for general practitioners (GPs) is generally provided by the medical defence organisations. The Government is aware that the costs of medical negligence in general have been rising, including for GP out of hours services.
No assessment has been made of the impact of changes in the costs of medical indemnity on out of hours services.
Departmental Ministers have held one meeting about the rising costs of out of hours indemnity insurance, at which an insurance company was represented. The Department understands that there are commercial insurance products available for corporate out of hours providers, in addition to the individual indemnity cover provided by the medical defence organisations.