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Letters to the Editor
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Indemnity insurance
Why pharmacists pay for their own insurance
From Mr J. A. Murphy, MRPharmS
Brian Threlfall raised some concerns relating to the requirement of
carrying professional indemnity insurance for six years after retirement
(PJ, 3 April, p413). This is a situation that many pharmacists are aware
of and consequently have taken out a special “run-off” policy
provided by the Pharmacists’ Defence Association (PDA).
He also asked how many pharmacists actually understand their PI insurance
policies. The answer to this question is one that the PDA was keen to
find out and that is why last year it organised a survey and a number
of focus groups.
Mr Threlfall has suggested that as an owner for many years of community
pharmacies, all of which were members of the National Pharmaceutical
Association, he, his employees and his locums were covered by indemnity
insurance. Clearly as an owner, he felt secure in the knowledge that
his interests were covered in the event something went wrong.
According to the focus groups and surveys, a major reason why now over
10,000 individuals are carrying their own independent cover is not because
they fear that they may be working for an NPA non-member or even a multiple
that is not in NPA membership. Rather, the reason is that they are concerned
about the potential pitfalls and conflicts of coming to rely on insurance
provided by an employer or an employer’s representative organisation.
They therefore carry their own insurance because they want to ensure
that they have full cover in the worst possible event.
In recent years, the NPA has been passing claims involving PDA members
over to the PDA to handle. The PDA welcomes this because it gives the
individual pharmacist an opportunity to have his or her case handled
without fear of conflict. The NPA, as a requirement of its constitution
owes its primary allegiance (quite rightly) to the NPA member, the owner
of the business; the PDA owes its primary allegiance to the individual
pharmacist. This is something that thousands of individual pharmacists
have come to value as an important support to their pharmacy practice.
In this age of portfolio careers and portable pensions, individuals are
much more discerning and choose, also, to carry their own portable insurance
protection. Many pharmacists now believe that the protection they would
most wish to rely on is their own, independent of their employers and
their employers’ insurers.
John Murphy
General Manager
Pharmacists’ Defence Association
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The
Pharmaceutical Journal