December 2023. Private Doctors face a huge shock under the Governments’ stated preference to abolish the discretionary medical malpractice indemnity as offered by the Defence Organisations ( the MPS, MDU and MDDUS). The Department of Health and Social Care’s report called ‘Appropriate Clinical negligence Cover – a consultation on appropriate medical negligence cover for regulated healthcare professionals. The government are concerned with the unregulated and discretionary nature of the cover MDO’s offering and want to abolish it in favour of a regulated insurance contract. Hospital Groups have supported this position as have some doctors who have been abandoned by the MDO’s in time of crisis.
TH DHSC stared the consultation in 2019 but was derailed by covid. We at MBC have participated in recent discussions and are hoping for the report to be published soon. Our advice is to seek insurance cover now before the market is flooded ( and options reduced) with requests for cover, if, as expected , discretionary cover is banned.