Members have been asking us about their indemnity cover during the pandemic, as some have found themselves redeployed into new areas and new challenges like COVID-19 vaccination have entered the discussion.
Since 2014 all registered nurses have to have indemnity cover appropriate for their scope of practice to meet the costs of any clinical negligence compensation claim against them. They must confirm that they have such cover when they apply for admission to the NMC register and every time that they revalidate.
For the vast majority of our members, there is reassuring news.
Anyone working in the NHS has always had automatic indemnity cover supplied by their employer, whatever their role, temporary or permanent. This is supplied by the state-backed Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST).
Since April 2019, the government has stepped in with a very similar scheme for everyone working in GP practices, called the Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice (CNSGP). This includes locums and bank staff, and covers organisations privately providing GP services, like walk-in centres and out of hours services.
Employers in the independent sector hold indemnity cover for their employees. If your employer is refusing to provide cover for you, please contact us on 0345 7726100 for further support.
In early 2020, the government passed the Coronavirus Act 2020 which contains emergency powers in response to the pandemic. One section introduced a new indemnity scheme called Clinical Negligence Scheme for Coronavirus (CNSC), for any pandemic-related claims that did not fall under any other scheme. Whilst other schemes should cover all situations, it was added to give peace of mind to those taking up new posts at short notice at the start of the emergency.
Now the focus is upon the vaccine. All staff delivering the vaccine will need indemnity cover as they do for any clinical task. Those working with state-supplied vaccines will be covered under the above schemes, including all students on placements.
