As of last month, GPs must have professional indemnity insurance to protect them in case they are sued. This follows a European Union directive that guarantees patients from one EU state who seek treatment in another have access to redress if something goes wrong.

Until 1 August, the General Medical Council (GMC) only required GPs to have indemnity cover where necessary, meaning that they had to have adequate insurance or indemnity cover so that their patients would not be disadvantaged if they made a claim about the clinical care the GP provided in the UK.

Now, as the Medical Defence Union (MDU) has pointed out, the GMC can remove a doctor’s licence if they find that they do not have appropriate insurance or indemnity in place, or if they fail to provide the appropriate information to the GMC when requested.

The change in the law comes as the cost of insurance is rocketing, with the Family Doctor Association reporting earlier this month that GP indemnity costs have increased by 25 per cent in just one year. The average annual fee for a GP doing 10 sessions a week is up to £11,320.

Meanwhile, the number of claims against GPs for clinical negligence is also increasing, with the number of new GP claims notified to the MDU rising by over 15 per cent a year for the past five years. Compensation awards are also on the rise.

With the indemnity issue being seen as a priority by NHS England, the British Medical Association (BMA) hosted a summit earlier this month concerning the rising cost of GP indemnity. Nothing concrete has come from that in the way of advice as yet but more and more GPs are considering shopping around for indemnity from the private sector and some practices have signed deals with insurance brokers independently of the medical defence organisations.