Offer to cover GP indemnity costs

  GPs will have their indemnity costs for extra OOH (out-of-hours) shifts covered this winter following BMA lobbying. NHS England today announced it will make £2m available to help with these expenses from this month until March 2016 in a bid to help ease winter NHS pressures. GPs usually have to change the level of their indemnity cover with medical defence organisations when taking on additional OOH sessions, which can dissuade them from taking up the work. However, under the NHS England winter indemnity scheme, which has been developed with medical defence organisations, additional charges will be offset. The move follows a recent meeting on medical indemnity which was organised by the BMA GPs committee in response to members’ concerns, and included medical defence organisations, NHS Litigation Authority and NHS England. GPC negotiator Charlotte Jones (pictured above) said the committee welcomed the announcement of the scheme. She added: ‘We have requested sight of the detail of how the scheme will run. In addition, we have asked for clarity around whether those doctors who have already paid additional indemnity fees to undertake OOH shifts through winter, will have these costs reimbursed.’   Law reform Fellow GPC negotiator Dean Marshall said: ‘The GPC will continue to work with all the relevant stakeholders around indemnity in a bid to resolve the current difficulties. 'We recognise it is difficult to offer any immediate prospect...
Source: BMA News - Category: UK Health Source Type: news