GP indemnity costs to be covered as NHS England looks to fill out-of-hours shifts
GPs working out-of-hours shifts will have their indemnity costs covered until April under a pilot scheme run by NHS England as it admitted that costs are ‘often a barrier to recruit’.
The move, revealed in a news bulletin to practices this morning, comes as ‘significant’ winter demand had pushed GP out-of-hours and NHS 111 providers to ‘work together to explore ways to get more GPs to support contract centres at peak times’, it said.
NHS England admitted that it is aware that rising indemnity costs for out-of-hours work is ‘often a barrier to recruit’. It follows a study published in November said almost half of GPs are turning down out-of-hours shifts because of the high cost of indemnity cover.
NHS England’s bulletin said: ‘This winter has seen significant demand for local urgent care services. GP out-of-hours services and NHS 111 providers are working together to explore ways to get more GPs to support contract centres at peak times. NHS England is aware that rising indemnity costs for GPs working in an out-of-hours setting is often a barrier to recruit.
‘Where a provider is an NHS provider, GP indemnity can be covered through the NHS Litigation Authority. NHS England is piloting a scheme with the main medical defence organisations to reimburse indemnity costs to GPs committing to new out-of-hours sessions between now and 7 April 2015.’
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Dr Richard Vautrey, GPC deputy chair, said he believed the details about the pilots had not been firmed up.
He said: ‘[T]his is something we’ve been working with them on but at the moment there are no details firmed up or definite time as to when it might start.
‘The overall aim is to reduce the additional indemnity burden for a GP doing OOH sessions, but it’s quite complex to achieve that.’
Medical defence organisations have said premiums have risen because of an increased risk of claims, as legal complaints against GP reached record highs last year.
This follows a scheme by Welsh health boards to lower GP out-of-hours indemnity costs via a risk-sharing system that has been effective in increasing the number of GPs willing to take on shifts.
This year, NHS England efforts to relieve the winter crisis has been hampered by a lack of GPs and hospitals were pleading with GPs to step in as they struggled to cope with demand.
GPs wanting more information on NHS England’s pilot can contact: england.primarycareops@nhs.net
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Readers' comments (21)
Anonymous | Sessional/Locum GP06 Feb 2015 3:16pm
This should have been done years ago for all GPs since we work for a monopoly employer! This would save NHS millions because: 1) NHS England could pay GPs less and 2) The government would be incentivised to control the inexorable rise in medical litigation costs.
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Anonymous | GP Partner06 Feb 2015 3:58pm
Call me greedy if you like but to get me to work any further hours over and above the 50+ I do already would have to be a kings ransom; indemnity would have to be absolute especially at 3 o'clock in the morning after a full day surgery work. Good luck to those that think they can squeeze a little more out of themselves.
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Andrew Mimnagh | GP Partner06 Feb 2015 4:03pm
Dot Sticking Plaster solution for a bleeding artery.
Where do we magic the GP's from?
We are working 14 hour"routinel" days plus often extended hours for scheduled appointments in the evening.
If you covered my indemnity I could not be at "out of Hours" as I am stiill completing the "in hours" workload.
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Anonymous | GP Partner06 Feb 2015 4:44pm
I stopped doing OOH after seeing 42 patients in the surgery and another 22 after 6 30 pm.
No wonder complaints about GPs are rising.
We are working way, way below safety levels.
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Anonymous | GP Partner06 Feb 2015 5:05pm
horse...bolted...anyone?
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Vinci Ho | GP Partner06 Feb 2015 5:32pm
Desparation.
NHSE got itself into a shi* situation because it treated GPs like shi*.
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Manish Raut | Salaried GP06 Feb 2015 6:47pm
Its just nit indemnity which is the barrier, some dont want to lose their personal allowance. There should be some tax allowance for working unearthly hours or weekends, I guess !!
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Anonymous | Salaried GP06 Feb 2015 7:01pm
it's feb and this cover will run until april (barely 2 months) ... ground breaking
i shall immediately (not)
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Anonymous | GP Partner06 Feb 2015 7:05pm
This is a huge change and may be another step towards a salaried service.
I would love to know if in fact it is legal as I know of an opinion from a barrister that this is not the case.
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Anonymous | Salaried GP06 Feb 2015 7:07pm
06 February 2015 4:03pm
'Dot Sticking Plaster solution for a bleeding artery.'
don't give them ideas as they we will want to do vascular surgery on top of border control, boiler checks, lonliness checks, dementia care, counselling, manage ANPs, NPs, medical assistants, CCG duties, mental health, gardening ... basically everything ... for £95 quid per patient. Why anyone will bother with Homecare when they can register with a GP...
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