Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what discussions they have had with the insurance industry about the impact of changes in medical indemnity premiums for general practitioners working in out of hours services.
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.