GP Practice based pharmacist membership will cover pharmacists who are mainly GP practice based working in England, Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland and who are managed or employed by the GP practice or a federation of GP practices or similar. They have a wide, varied and comprehensive range of responsibilities when working clinically in a GP practice. This may be through one of the NHS schemes, for a federation or similar or directly for a GP Practice.
I am a GP Practice based pharmacist what cover will I need?
GP Practice based pharmacists are working with the most exposure to the clinical and diagnostic environment in primary care; an area most accustomed to large civil claims for compensation. The cost of full GP surgery indemnity is expensive (£8,000 to £25,000 per year for GPs and £3,000 – to £4,500 for nurses); it ranges from £925 – £1,700 per year for pharmacists, this provides cover not only for any work in GP practice, but also any portfolio work in other sectors of pharmacy. It also provides protection for a wide range of medico legal exposures such as employer/employee disputes, regulatory investigations, criminal proceedings and involvement in complaints and inquests.
However, in England and Wales only, prompted by the very expensive costs of GP Defence Association membership which the government was ultimately having to fund, the Department of Health and Social Care has introduced a State Backed indemnity scheme.
This scheme will cost the government less because unlike Defence Association membership, it has not been designed to defend the reputation of healthcare professionals or support them in wider proceedings in an error or omission situation. Instead it has been designed primarily to settle compensation claims made to patients by the NHS and it does not provide any medico-legal protection for the individual practitioner. GP Practice based pharmacists will also be covered by the scheme.
Importantly, the perils not covered by the State Backed Scheme, are the ones that pharmacists are far more likely to face than what the scheme is designed to cover; which is a claim for compensation, and this is why pharmacists are being urged by the NHS to maintain their Defence Association membership.
In response to these developments, The PDA has provided choice by making two indemnity schemes available to GP Practice based pharmacists.