The Pharmaceutical Journal
Vol 272 No 7293 p413
3 April 2004

This article
Reprint
Photocopy

PDF 75K, Acrobat Reader

· Veterinary pharmacy
· Indemnity insurance
· Methadone
· Excipients
· Self-prescribing
· Pharmacist prescribing
· Sugar in medicines
· NMS

Letters to the Editor

Indemnity insurance

Premiums need to be paid after retirement

From Mr B. P. Threlfall, MRPharmS

As an owner of community pharmacies for many years, all of which were members of the National Pharmaceutical Association, my staff and I were covered by indemnity insurance provided by the Chemists Defence Association. This cover also extended to locum pharmacists employed. Not all pharmacies provide this insurance for locums and, apparently, over 9,000 have personal professional indemnity cover provided by one company alone.

However, how many of these 9,000 actually read and understand the policies where cover is usually provided on a “claims made” basis? This means that any claim needs to be made while the policy is still active. In other words, if an error occurred last month, and the policy expired at the end of that month and was not renewed, but a claim was not made until this month, the claim would not be covered. Claims can be made for up to six years after an event. How many of us know that premiums need to be paid for up to six years after retirement to ensure that we are covered for claims arising as a result of incidents that occurred before we retired?

Brian Threlfall
Secretary
Morecambe Bay Local Pharmaceutical Committee

Send your letter to The Editor

Previous Topic (Veterinary pharmacy)
Next Topic (Methadone)