Insurance and indemnity

At present, there are no express statutory requirements or provisions dealing with professional indemnity arrangements for registered medical practitioners or those seeking registration with the GMC. There is no compulsory statutory requirement for any doctor to be a member of a medical defence organisation or to have professional indemnity or insurance arrangements.

However, since 1997, Good Medical Practice has placed a professional duty on doctors to have such arrangements in place. Paragraph 34 of Good Medical Practice provides that a doctor 'must take out adequate insurance or professional indemnity cover for any part of your practice not covered by an employer's indemnity scheme, in your patients' interest as well as your own.

Our insurance and indemnity guidance (pdf) has more information.