Dental Protection has welcomed updated guidance from the GDC on indemnity published just before Christmas, which includes a helpful range of questions for dental professionals to consider when arranging their individual protection.
The checklist of questions includes:
- Will this product cover me for all the tasks that I do, the locations where I work and the hours I work?
- What are the financial or other limits of this product, and is the level of financial cover sufficient in relation to the risks related to my individual professional practice?
- Is the product occurrence-based or claims-made cover? If a claim is made after the policy has expired, will the patient still be able to receive compensation if the claim is successful?
- What assistance is provided in disciplinary or fitness to practise proceedings or other nonclaims matters?
- Does the provider offer support and advice services, including legal advice and wellbeing support?
Dr Raj Rattan, Dental Director at Dental Protection said: “There are a range of different indemnity and insurance options available and this updated guidance will help dental professionals ask the right questions when making a decision about what protection is most appropriate for them.
“In response to the checklist of questions, I can confirm that members of Dental Protection do not have financial caps and that their protection is occurrence-based. This means they do not need to worry about the prospect of having to cover any costs that exceed a limit and that they will be protected long into the future without the need to purchase run-off or ‘tail’ cover when they end their policy, retire, or leave dentistry.
“It is particularly welcome that the checklist of questions highlights the importance of having protection against a GDC fitness to practise investigation. We know from our experience that a regulatory investigation has a significant toll on wellbeing and the consequences for a dental professional’s career can be devastating. Having expert support and legal advice is incredibly important but it is not included as standard by all indemnity and insurance providers.”
The full revised guidance and exhaustive list of questions from the GDC comes into effect from 12 February 2024 and is available online.
ENDS.
For further information contact [email protected]
About Dental Protection
Dental Protection is a registered trademark and a trading name of The Medical Protection Society Limited (“MPS”). MPS is the world’s leading protection organisation for doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals. We protect and support the professional interests of more than 300,000 members around the world. Membership provides access to expert advice and support and can also provide, depending on the type of membership required, the right to request indemnity for any complaints or claims arising from professional practice.
Our in-house experts assist with the wide range of legal and ethical problems that arise from professional practice. This can include clinical negligence claims, complaints, medical and dental council inquiries, legal and ethical dilemmas, disciplinary procedures, inquests and fatal accident inquiries.
Our philosophy is to support safe practice in medicine and dentistry by helping to avert problems in the first place. We do this by promoting risk management through our workshops, E-learning, clinical risk assessments, publications, conferences, lectures and presentations.
MPS is not an insurance company. All the benefits of membership of MPS are discretionary as set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association.