Two GP networks, with a total of 67 practices, have agreed block indemnity deals with a medical defence organisation.
SEL GP Group, a network of 30 practices, and Leeds West Primary Care, a 37-practice network, have said the indemnity arrangements with the Medical Protection Society (MPS) will allow GPs to work at more than one location within their network.
Wendy Pearson, director of primary care development and company secretary at SEL GP Group, said the deal would support GPs to work at scale, to deliver ‘primary care services across various practices’ under one indemnity policy for the whole network.
She said: ‘We wanted to ensure that all clinical staff – from the administrative and management teams to healthcare assistants and phlebotomists – have professional protection, even when they work across more than one practice.’
The deal follows a similar negotiation last year, which saw a GP federation with 16 practices sign a similar block indemnity deal.
Dr Rob Hendry, medical director at MPS, said the indemnity arrangement will allow GPs to collaborate in different ways and ‘meet the changing healthcare needs of their communities and respond to the desire for greater integration’.
When asked whether the block deal would provide the GPs with a discount on indemnity, Dr Hendry did not acknowledge that this was the case, saying: ‘The two arrangements in place have been indemnified at a corporate level to recognise and support the need for flexible working arrangements that were requested by SEL GP Group and Leeds West Primary Care.
‘Individual GPs within the two groups who are in a Practice Xtra scheme with Medical Protection will already be enjoying benefits associated with the group discounts that MPS have offered to these schemes for nine years.’
