Vol. 539 No. 3
28 Mr. Bell asked the Minister for Health and Children his proposals regarding the escalating cost of insurance cover for obstetricians; his further proposals regarding the development of a no-fault compensation system for birth-damaged children; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19198/01]
I was very concerned recently to hear that the Medical Defence Union, MDU, proposed to increase the subscription rate for its consultant obstetrician members in Ireland from £68,665 to £393,000 per annum. I obviously regret that the MDU should have felt it necessary to impose an increase of this magnitude on a relatively small group of its members. I have met the MDU on several occasions in the past year and I am aware of the circumstances which they feel has left them with no alternative but to implement this increase.
While I am conscious of the anxiety which an increase of this magnitude must have caused to individual MDU members I must emphasise that I did not see it having any impact on obstetrician's capacity to continue in practice. The other provider of medical indemnity cover to Irish doctors, the Medical Protection Society, does not share the pessimistic view taken by the MDU on this issue and is confident that it can offer full cover to obstetricians at a cost of £51,600 per annum. The Medical Protection Society has expressed a willingness to accept applications from obstetrician members of the MDU who wish to transfer.
In order to tackle the longer term issues in this area a group has been established to look at alternative ways of providing cover for infants who suffer brain damage at birth, including a "no fault" compensation scheme. The group is to hold its first meeting in July and I look forward to receiving its conclusions and recommendations in due course.
It is planned to change the existing arrangements for the provision of medical indemnity in July 2002 so that individual consultants who work in the public hospital system will not have to provide their own indemnity cover for their public work. This will remove the need for consultants to pay the amounts now being charged for indemnity cover even though the bulk of this cost is borne by the Exchequer by way of a 80 – 90% reimbursement for those who work in the public sector.
