The new GP indemnity scheme for Wales will provide ‘greater stability and certainty’ for doctors, the Government has said.
Health secretary Vaughan Gething also announced that NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership has been chosen as the preferred partner for the new state-backed indemnity scheme, which will begin in April.
The same organisation already indemnifies GPs working out of hours.
Mr Gething said the Future Liability Scheme would be aligned as far as possible to the one announced in England and would ensure GP recruitment and cross-border activity was not adversely affected by different schemes operating.
He said the scheme would include ‘clinical-negligence liabilities arising from the activities of GP practice staff and other medical professionals such as salaried GPs; locum GPs; practice pharmacists; practice nurses; healthcare assistants’.
BMA Welsh GPs committee chair Charlotte Jones welcomed the move and said: ‘The proposed scheme will address one of the biggest financial pressures on GPs and will help enable all GPs, practice teams and wider cluster healthcare professionals to work more closely together taking forward the transformation of Welsh primary care.’
