Vol. 542 No. 5
300 Mr. Perry asked the Minister for Health and Children if his attention has been drawn to the fact that if a patient goes to a private hospital there is no guarantee that the doctors operating on the patient will have private insurance due to the fact that the law does not compel doctors to have insurance. [25027/01]
There is no specific legislative requirement that doctors keep themselves indemnified against the cost of claims for personal injury arising from the practice of medicine. All doctors working in the public health service are required to be indemnified against the cost of such claims. Doctors in private practice are independent contractors and it is a matter for themselves, or for the hospitals in which they practice, as to how they finance the cost of any successful claims made against them. A doctor who is unable to meet the cost of such claims and has neglected to ensure satisfactory indemnity cover could be considered to have behaved in an unethical and unprofessional manner. The issue of requiring doctors to produce evidence of holding satisfactory indemnity cover is being considered in the context of a new medical practitioners Act.
