things you must know about Medical Malpractice Insurance

What is Medical Malpractice Insurance?

This insurance provides compensation for bodily injury, disease or death caused by negligence on behalf of the medical practitioner or their employees.    Medical practitioners are exposed on two fronts.  They may be negligent themselves and thereby cause their patient to suffer damages, or, they may be indirectly liable where an employee acts negligently.  In both cases, our insurance policy will compensate the losses caused.

Who needs Medical Malpractice Insurance?

All medical practitioners should have medical malpractice insurance.  In addition, physiotherapists, homeopaths, nursing homes, elderly care facilities and other health care professionals should all protect themselves with medical malpractice insurance.

Why should you take out Medical Malpractice Insurance?

Consumers are becoming more and more aware of their ability to seek compensation for damages caused by medical practitioners.  Medicine and medical care has historically been a perilous field, with many procedures being risky to begin with.  With increased media coverage, amplified consumer protection acts and greater access to attorneys, patients are increasingly seeking to blame and hold accountable their medical care givers.  Whether negligent or not, costly lawsuits often follow.  With our medical malpractice insurance, your legal costs will be covered either way, and if you or your staff are found to have been negligent, the award will also be covered by the policy.  Having this insurance in place is prudent financial and risk management. 

How much does Medical Malpractice Insurance cost?

It depends on the medical field you work within, your number of staff and number of clients. We have a large book of clients with many different insurance companies, so we will be able to find the most beneficial policy with the cheapest premiums for you.

Typical claims incurred on Medical Malpractice Insurance policies

In many cases, consumers feel that the risks or side effects associated with certain procedures were not adequately explained and highlighted to them, nor were alternative treatments sufficiently represented.  If these procedures do go wrong, the consumers (or their beneficiaries) seek compensation for the perceived negligent advice. 

Of course, we also receive many claims for mistakes in diagnosing, treatment, management of illness or injury,, incorrect prescriptions, procedures done incorrectly and mistakes occurring within the procedures.  Unfortunately, we also see many cases where the employees of nursing homes or elderly care facilities neglect or mistreat their patients.

What other insurance should be considered along with Medical Malpractice Insurance?

This is a very specialised and comprehensive type of insurance for medical practitioners, catering for almost all scenarios which could go wrong with these professionals.  However, we would also recommend that the physical assets of the practitioner also be insured.

GET A QUOTATION:

Click here to send us an e-mail requesting a quote -> insurance@barrington.co.za 

We will e-mail you a quotation as soon as possible.

Contact details will be kept confidential and will not be used in any way other than as described above and will not be shared with any other parties.

Please note that we can only insure in South Africa.