As part of this year’s process, doctors will be asked to comply with new requirements relating to professional indemnity following the introduction of the Medical Practitioners (Amendment) Act 2017. This amendment involves new mandatory legal requirements for all doctors currently registered or applying to register with the Medical Council regarding levels of professional medical indemnity. Doctors currently registered with the Council will be requested to confirm their professional indemnity.
The Council’s Director of Registration and Business Process Improvement Mr Philip Brady said: “Professional indemnity is a mandatory requirement and will protect the practitioner against claims arising in respect of medical malpractice, negligence and other civil claims that arise from a breach of duty associated with their practice as a doctor.”
“Most practitioners already have professional indemnity in place and the only change for those doctors will be completing the appropriate declaration and in some cases providing a copy of their indemnity cover certificate to the Council.
“Some practitioners may have to review the level of indemnity they have to ensure they have the correct level of cover to cover the scope of their practise.”
He added: “All doctors practising medicine in Ireland must have indemnity cover appropriate to the nature of their employment/practice arrangement and their area of practice.”
All registered doctors have been written to with the relevant information and have until 30 June 2018 to retain their registration.
As a doctor working in academia, I am dismayed to see that the Medical Council’s new registration rules require me to submit evidence of indemnity. I do not see patients, but have on occasion written repeat prescriptions for friends and relatives to help them avoid the inconvenience of attending another doctor. However, the non-practising doctor declaration specifically mentions that doctors declaring themselves in this category shall not be entitled to write prescriptions.
the new rules undermine my sense of identity as a medical practitioner, for no apparent patient safety reason, and feels like a further attack on non-p[practising doctors. As the cost of acquiring indemnity for myself has been quoted at E600 (an unreasonable cost for someone in as low a risk category as myself), I feel like I have been left with no option other than be forced out of my profession.