Medical indemnity insurance is a vital segment within the Australian health system, and its aim is to protect both doctors and patients in the events of malpractice or any incident arising from medical care. The Medical Board of Australia (MBA) requires all registered medical practitioners, expect those with non-practising registration, to be insured or indemnified for every context in which they practice. Let's try to break this down and explain it in more detail.
For instance, each medical specialist works hard in order to deliver the best results and optimal service. Sadly, even with vast experience, mistakes are a possibility and in some rare cases, things can go wrong. Often, these mistakes can have serious financial drawbacks for the patient and the doctor as well. In cases when this happens, the doctor needs to have adequate insurance (or indemnity) to compensate the patient. So, what is medical indemnity insurance in short? - A way to protect the medical practitioner during these claims of malpractice, and during the process where these need to be proven. In instances where malpractice is proven true, compensation is paid to the patient. In this way, both sides are protected.
In Australia, all medical practitioners in private practice have to have medical indemnity insurance. And they need to be indemnified for their entire scope of practice, whether via their employer's indemnity arrangements or through their own medical indemnity insurance. What is important to additionally know is that in cases when the doctor's insurance or indemnity arrangements specifically exclude any aspect of practice they must not practice in that area and if they notice that their arrangements are not in accordance to their needs and services they must notify the Medical Board as soon as possible.
So, what is medical indemnity insurance covering when claims are made against a medical practitioner? A large number of these policies cover personal liabilities that are possible to arise in the course of the doctor's career (including legal costs) because of civil claims (patient compensations), and also because of non-civil claims (such as coronial inquests, professional or disciplinary investigations, employment disputes – in short, anything other than compensations). Another thing that all medical practitioners should be aware of is that this type of insurance is provided on a “claims made” basis, which simply means that medical practitioners are required to inform the insurance company right after they get notified about the claim made against them. And, lastly, any claims made under one policy will be covered by the same one, even if the practitioner changes the insurance company in the meantime.
