Medical Protection providing automatic and free of charge support for retired doctors who join NHS Covid-19 vaccine team

With the Government authorising the first Covid-19 vaccine to be rolled out across the UK from next week, Medical Protection has confirmed that it will provide free of charge medicolegal support to retired members who have returned to practice to work on the delivery of the NHS Covid-19 vaccine programme.

In March, Medical Protection announced that retired members who were reinstated to the General Medical Council (GMC) register and wished to support the NHS effort in providing frontline services and advice to tackle the virus would receive free and automatic support from Medical Protection. Today, Medical Protection has confirmed that this protection will also include those working to support the NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme.

Sir Simon Stevens, NHS England Chief Executive, confirmed on 2 December 2020 that the vaccine will first be delivered from 50 hospital hubs from next week, with it being rolled out to groups of GP practices operating local vaccination centres, with more GP-led clinics opening up as more vaccine becomes available.

The delivery of the vaccine will be a state indemnified practice, with Medical Protection providing support with a range of issues other than clinical negligence claims should they arise as a result of their work during this period.

Dr Rob Hendry, Medical Director at Medical Protection said:

“We want to ensure that previously retired members have one less thing to worry about should they assist with the NHS vaccination programme. We are here to provide advice and protection if it is needed.

“MPS continues to play its part in tackling the Covid-19 pandemic, by providing assurance that former members who have retired will receive automatic and free of charge support with a range of issues that may arise as a result of their participation in the NHS Covid-19 vaccination programme.

“Support such as medicolegal advice, complaint handling and disciplinary matters are not part of the state-backed indemnity scheme, which only provides protection against the financial consequences of clinical negligence claims.

“Medical Protection is pleased to support doctors who want to play their part in making the Covid-19 vaccination programme a success, without the worry of unintended consequences.”

Almost 30,000 doctors have been temporarily registered with the GMC under emergency arrangements; these arrangements remain in place while the Secretary of State keeps the state of emergency in effect.

ENDS

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About Medical Protection

Medical Protection is a trading name of The Medical Protection Society Limited (“MPS”). MPS is the world’s leading protection organisation for doctors, dentists and healthcare professionals. We protect and support the professional interests of more than 300,000 members around the world. Membership provides access to expert advice and support and can also provide, depending on the type of membership required, the right to request indemnity for any complaints or claims arising from professional practice.

Our in-house experts assist with the wide range of legal and ethical problems that arise from professional practice. This can include clinical negligence claims, complaints, medical and dental council inquiries, legal and ethical dilemmas, disciplinary procedures, inquests and fatal accident inquiries.

Our philosophy is to support safe practice in medicine and dentistry by helping to avert problems in the first place. We do this by promoting risk management through our workshops, E-learning, clinical risk assessments, publications, conferences, lectures and presentations.

MPS is not an insurance company. All the benefits of membership of MPS are discretionary as set out in the Memorandum and Articles of Association.