GPs given money for rising indemnity costs
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- Published: Tuesday, 21 March 2017 07:38
- Written by News Editor
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NHS England has announced that it has promised help for GPs ‘struggling to cope’ with the rising cost of indemnity payments so that they can offer greater access for patients. The first payments from the GP Indemnity Support Scheme are set to be paid to GP practices to further offset average indemnity inflation. No such scheme has been offered to GDPs.
The funding is a result of the GP Indemnity Review published last summer, after GPs made clear that the above-inflation rises in the amount they must pay to buy indemnity against clinical negligence is unsustainable. The GP Indemnity Scheme payments are made directly to practices and based on 51.6p per patients on their list as of December 1 2016. The two year scheme is making £30m available in 2016/17 while NHS England works with the Department of Health on long-term plans for indemnity reform. Concerns have also been raised about the potential for rising indemnity in discouraging GPs from taking on certain work, like out-of-hours care.
The GP Indemnity Review concluded that the rises seen in recent years in the cost of indemnity are likely to continue in the future, and that action will be needed in a number of areas to meet the commitments set out in the GP Forward View.
The review concluded that in the short term, the best way of reducing the pressure of indemnity in general practice is through a support package that seeks to provide additional funds to offset the inflationary increases seen each year. To achieve this NHS England is putting in place a financial support package.
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