Vol. 412 No. 3
149 Mr. R. Bruton asked the Minister for Health if he will give details on the present arrangements between health authorities and consultants, non-consultant hospital doctors and general practitioners regarding the payment of premiums for medical negligence; and if he will outline whether the amount of the premium paid from public resources is linked to the proportion of the doctor's patients who are being seen publicly rather than privately.
All medical practitioners employed in the public health services are required to insure themselves against claims for negligence or malpractice. The cost of this insurance is reimbursed on the following basis: Under the terms of the revised consultants' contract, hospital consultants holding "geographical wholetime" appointments, that is those whose private practice is conducted on the site of their public hospital appointment, have 90 per cent of the premium refunded. Those who hold appointments granting the right to "off site" private practice have 80 per cent of the premium refunded. This approach has been adopted as it would not be practical to match the exact proportion of the premium to be refunded to the precise division between each consultant's public and private practice.
Non-consultant hospital doctors receive a refund equivalent to 90 per cent of the net cost — net of the appropriate income tax allowance — of their insurance premium.
Non-consultant hospital doctors have no private practice. The 10 per cent of the premium which is not refunded is in respect of the other non-insurance benefits provided by membership of the medical defence organisations.
The review of the GMS contract, which was completed earlier this year, recommended that with effect from 1 January 1992, general practitioners be reimbursed a percentage of the net cost of their medical indemnity subscriptions based on the numbers of medical card patients on their panels.
