In February 2017, the UK Government made a substantial change to the way in which personal injury compensation payments are calculated. The decision to lower the personal injury discount rate (PIDR) saw the rate at which payments are calculated fall from 2.5% to minus 0.75%, resulting in a significant increase to the cost of settling large clinical negligence claims, especially for GPs.

What's happened since then?

There have been a number of developments relating to clinical negligence indemnity since the PIDR change, including how the discount rate is set for England and Wales. The expectation is that in the future the rate will be set at a higher level and reviewed more often to avoid sudden changes. The UK and Welsh governments also introduced state-backed indemnity schemes for GPs and others working in general practice in England and Wales.

What does state-backed indemnity mean for me?

Both the England and Wales state-backed indemnity schemes provide indemnity against clinical negligence claims arising from NHS contracted work – in a similar arrangement to the NHS indemnity scheme for NHS hospital doctors. The schemes do not include indemnity for non-contracted NHS work, or provide support for complaints, GMC inquiries, inquests and disciplinary proceedings. Medical Protection continues to offer this support to general practice members, just as we have for hospital doctors since NHS indemnity was introduced for them in 1990.

Campaigning for you

We were absolutely clear from the outset that members working in general practice should not have to shoulder any additional financial burden as a result of the Government’s decision to amend the PIDR, and have consistently pushed for them to provide comprehensive support for GPs and others working in general practice. 

We campaigned to ensure that the impact of the amended PIDR was fully understood and properly taken into account in governmental decisions. As a result, in addition to the state-backed schemes for new claims (known as the Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice or CNSGP in England), an Existing Liabilities Scheme (ELS) has also been introduced for general practice members in England. This means that the UK and Welsh governments have assumed responsibility for all existing claims against those members working in general practice where the adverse incident date was before 1 April 2019, as well as for claims that are brought after 1 April 2019 – so long as these claims relate to treatment under a NHS contract.

This is a really positive outcome, and is a similar approach to the one that was taken for hospital doctors when their arrangements were introduced in 1990, which is something we had argued for since the proposals for state-backed GP indemnity were first announced.

We have included some Existing Liabilities Q&As to help answer any questions you may have.