registered with the Institute of Biomedical Science
Introduced by Parliament Hill
Please see below the policies we can provide on your behalf as a member of the IBMS.
Professional Indemnity provides cover for health care professionals against negligent acts, errors or omissions that occur in the course of carrying out day-to-day duties. In essence, if a fee is charged to provide a service, then the end client has a right to expect the person charging the fee has the skills and ability to do the work requested and, if the person fails in their duties, the end client can look for recourse.
As a very basic example: A biomedical scientist is asked to test blood samples of a patient and report the findings to a doctor. Testing is done and the report is submitted to the doctor, who decides on a course of treatment for their patient based on the findings of that report. The patient becomes more ill and after checking, it transpires the report submitted by the biomedical scientist was for a different patient.
In this instance, the claim against the biomedical scientist is for professional negligence, rather negligent treatment of a patient and the professional indemnity section of the Professional Indemnity policy would apply.
Legal Expenses (Fitness to Practice) provides health care professionals with regulatory protection in the event of a complaint being made against them to their professional and/or regulatory body. The cover includes complaints made by members of the public or other health care professionals.
In the event of a complaint being made, insurers will pay for the costs associated with representing and defending the matter at disciplinary hearings and includes loss of registration appeals, legal and tax helplines.
How you trade will help determine the right policy, or package of policies you need to cover you and/or your business.
If you are in full-time employment within the NHS, any complaint for negligent or poor treatment made against you to the NHS, will be covered by the NHS’ indemnity arrangements and under these circumstances, you do not need to buy cover for yourself.
However, if the complaint made against you is made to The Health Care and Professions Council (HCPC), or the regulatory body of the NHS, the Professional Indemnity cover provided by the NHS will not meet the costs associated with defending and representing you at any disciplinary hearing. Our Professional Indemnity policy will provide you with cover for this and claims that might arise out of Good Samaritans Acts (subject to policy terms and conditions).
This difference between this Professional Indemnity policy and our legal expenses (fitness to practice) insurance is that our Professional Indemnity cover will defend cases of a clinical nature reported to your professional and/or regulatory body, whereas the legal expenses (fitness to practice) policy covers disciplinary issues outside of clinical negligence.
In some cases your contract of employment may require you to buy your own professional liability policy, including cover for errors and omissions by you and, in these circumstances, we can provide you with full cover as requested (subject to acceptability).
If you are in full-time employment within private sector, any complaint for negligent or poor treatment made against you to your employer, should be covered by their Professional Indemnity insurance and under these circumstances, you do not need to buy cover for yourself. For your own comfort, you should check with your employer to make sure that you are covered under their Professional Indemnity insurance and their insurance is paid in full.
However, in the event a complaint made against you is made to The Health Care and Professions Council (HCPC), or another regulatory or professional body, your employer’s Professional Indemnity insurance will probably not meet the costs associated with defending and representing you at any disciplinary hearing. Again, you should check with your employer to find out if their policy covers you for disciplinary hearings and if it doesn’t, our Professional Indemnity policy will provide you with this cover (subject to policy terms and conditions).
This difference between this Professional Indemnity policy and our legal expenses (fitness to practice) insurance is that our Professional Indemnity cover will defend cases of a clinical nature reported to your professional and/or regulatory body, whereas the legal expenses (fitness to practice) policy covers disciplinary issues outside of clinical negligence.
In some cases your contract of employment may require you to buy your own professional liability policy, including cover for errors and omissions by you and, in these circumstances, we can provide you with full cover as requested (subject to acceptability).
If you are self-employed, it is your responsibility to ensure you have adequate Professional Indemnity insurance in place to defend yourself against claims of negligence.
We can provide you with a bespoke Professional Indemnity policy to meet your needs and requirements, along with providing the relevant legal expenses (fitness to practice) cover.
In this instance our Professional Indemnity policy will cover claims made against you by third parties’ for clinical negligence, plus complaints made to any professional or regulatory bodies relating to disciplinary hearings for clinical negligence.
For members working as locums, you need to check with your agency whether they are providing any insurance to cover you in the event of an issue happening at your place of work. This means you need to check each time you are placed in a new contract.
Whether you are on a short or long term contract, you need to have insurance in place should an incident occur and the benefit of buying our insurance product is that the policy will be in your name and move with you, irrespective of where you work. This will provide comfort that whatever happens, you are covered.
To proceed, locums should complete our Self-employed application.
As many IBMS members - current and retired - are asked to provide UKAS assessments of laboratories to ensure they are meeting the required ISO standards, we have included a specific section for these members to buy and renew their insurances.
Being a UKAS assessor requires members to have in place professional indemnity cover for the work they carry our when reviewing and assessing laboratories and our scheme has taken this into account when rating your exposures.
Our UKAS product includes both professional indemnity and legal expenses, covering members against any claims of negligence, error or omission when carrying out their assessments for UKAS, plus providing comfort should a complaint about you be made to the HCPC, and they decide to act and request your presence at a disciplinary hearing. Our legal expenses policy covers the costs of defending and representing you at these hearings.
Whilst many Students will not carry out any type of work at all at the moment and therefore, will not need to buy any insurance, we have included a reduced premium for students just in case they do perform some activities by way of, for example, work experience. Our premium is based on no work activities being done or, minimal at best and it is in place for members who feel they want to have some security if they do go onsite within the NHS or in private sector.
The options for students are the same as full members. If you are, or believe you may be working within the NHS, choose that option from our list. If you will work in private sector, select that button in our quote section and our quote will be displayed.
The limit of indemnity provided for Students is £250,000 only.
Professional Indemnity insurance is a claims made policy, which means a policy needs to be active when a claim or complaint is made against you, to defend you. Even if the allegation of negligence happened years ago, if a policy is not in effect at the date of receiving the allegation, insurers can refuse to meet the claim.
Our maternity cover is for members who are on maternity leave, so they can maintain their required Professional Indemnity insurance, at reduced rates. When you return to work, the cover resumes, and a pro rata premium is paid to bring your cover back up to full cover. Cover is restricted during maternity cover to reporting of previous allegations only.
The premium quoted by us will include cover for both your Professional Indemnity and Legal Expenses (fitness to practice) insurance.
For members employed full-time (inc if you are a student) by the NHS and/or private sector, obtaining a quote is as easy as selecting how you are employed (NHS or private sector). Our premiums automatically display for each member status. Click on the BUY button and apply in less than 5 minutes.
For self-employed members (inc if you are a student) the process is slightly longer as we need to ask more questions to ensure our insurers are fully aware of what you do, so they can provide you with the appropriate cover. The process being:
Step 1: We have three options, two provide premium indications based on your estimated annual turnover and the other is for members who have turnovers more than £150K. This option has no premium and needs to be looked at by insurers prior to a premium being quoted Please choose the option that best matches your estimated annual turnover.
Step 2a: Complete the online application and if your answers are satisfactory to insurers, we will confirm cover has been accepted and you can proceed to the payment section.
Step 2b: Complete the online application and if you are asked to provide additional information, enter the details into the box supplied and/or attach the relevant documentation. In these cases, your application will be referred to insurers and you will be advised of this fact in the Confirmation page of our application. We send your application to insurers who will look at the information provided by you – in the application and additional answers/documentation – and confirm if cover can be given, plus the premium required.
For UKAS assessors please choose the UKAS assessors' option and proceed through by completing the online application. If the answers entered into the application satisfy insurers underwriting criteria, cover will be confirmed, and you can move through to the payment stage. If an answer provided triggers a referral to insurers, you will be asked to provide further details in respect of that question, and your application will be referred to insurers for acceptance. This usually takes less than two working days.
Please note that we provide a non-advised sales service, which means we will provide you with access to all the documentation you will need to decide on whether our insurance meets with your needs and requirements. Our quote will include all taxes and fees payable, and you are under no obligation to purchase cover from us.
Please note: If you work as an employed person in some cases, and self-employed in others i.e. a combination of both, you will need to complete the Self-Employed application.