Article by Max Lee, Senior Risk Specialist
In 2017, Ministry of Health decided to move 9,000 public sector doctors from London based Medical Protection Society (MPS) to an insurance scheme and this encouraged niche insurers to create similar cover for private sector doctors addressing concerns on rising premiums, post retirement cover for retired doctors and visibility on terms and conditions.
Underlying risks that a Medical Practice Entity faced daily
The role of a doctor primarily are consultation, physical examination and prescription and the risks perimeters are often associated with the patients when there are direct physical contacts or unintentional wrongful diagnosed that led to wrong prescriptions. This can amount to serious bodily damage due to wrong drugs side effects
Majority of medical malpractice lawsuits arise from misdiagnosis or delayed diagnosis of a medical condition, illness, or injury. When a doctor’s diagnosis error leads to incorrect treatment, delayed treatment, or no treatment at all, a patient’s condition can be made much worse, and they may even die.
Another common risk is error in medication dispensing. Dispensing errors include any inconsistencies or deviations from the prescription order, such as dispensing the incorrect drug, dose, dosage form, wrong quantity, or inappropriate, incorrect, or inadequate labelling would also worsen the patient’s condition.
Engaging Locum while is common, but any deviation of standard practicing procedure may lead to unforced errors.
All the above-mentioned may lead to reputational damage, potential lawsuits and hefty compensation.
How can a Medical Malpractice Liability help?
This liability cover practicing entity and its employees and employees refers to principal doctors, consultants, locums, practice managers, medical administrators, nurses, ancillary healthcare staffs and administrative staffs.
It covers losses which an insured is legally obligated to pay in respect of a claim including not limited to any damages, judgements entered, or settlements reached, including defence costs and legal representation expenses in the provision of professional healthcare services during the period of insurance.
Options are available to provide cover for retired doctors, exercise limits reinstatement and appointment of preferred legal representative.
Building from core cover, Grinweiv medical malpractice specialist can help to identify relevant extension covers, benchmarking sub-limits to achieve an end to end cover for the entity, doctors and administrative staffs.