Why is corporate indemnity needed?
The legal position for a company differs to a partnership. Unlike a partnership, a company is a separate legal entity. In the event of a clinical negligence claim, the company as well as the individual could be sued.
Traditionally, clinical negligence claims have been made against individual healthcare professionals.
Now, where the doctor or dentist is employed by a company and where the patient referral is organised through the company, it is increasingly likely that a claim may be made against the company itself instead of, or as well as, the individual healthcare staff involved in the treatment.
Example 1
Poor procedures or management of the patient by the company
While an individual practitioner may be sued for a negligent diagnosis, a patient may seek to make a further claim against the company, for example, for inappropriate treatment of his referral; for lack of a system to follow-up on tests conducted; or for lack of assessment or poor quality training or supervision of the practitioner by the company. Indeed in some claims it may be not be possible to identify a single practitioner who alone provided the negligent care.
Where in the past such
claims might have been made against partnerships,
they may now be made against the company contracted
to provide the service.
Example 2
For vicarious liability for the actions of staff employed or engaged by the company
Historically, doctors have been vicariously liable for the acts of other healthcare professionals working under their direction. If, for example, practice nurses are acting under the direction of company managers, rather than employed doctors, the company may find itself being sued for their negligent actions.
In these examples, a company would need to be certain its interests were covered. The Corporate Indemnity Solution is designed to do just that
Download more information 
RSS