1. In the summer of the year 2010, the Health
Practitioners Regulation National Law
mandated that all practising nursing
professionals and midwives carry
sufficient medical indemnity
insurance cover. The updated
legislation also clearly stated that general
practice nursing professionals could be held
responsible, at worst negligent, in the event
of a public liability lawsuit as a result of an
alleged medical negligence incident.
According to government law, general
practice nurses that do not have the proper
medical indemnity cover may potentially
face charges of unprofessional conduct.
Nevertheless, in reality, recorded
circumstances of medical professionals
addressing such severe accusations are
quite rare, if not wholly unheard of, given
the proliferation of countless choice medical
3. Professional indemnity insurance for nurses all but assures that general
practice nurses will have more than adequate cover in the event of an
accidental medical mishap during a doctor-approved prudent course of
treatment, whether procedural, diagnostic or post-operative In fact, the
Australian Practice Nurses Association (APNA) has cautioned its members
that the most common staff and entity policies and practice policies offered by
healthcare employers (i e private clinics and public hospitals) simply will not
suffice in the event of a serious allegation of malpractice
4. The frank truth of the matter is that an employer's vicarious liability, also
known as secondary liability in civil discourse, will not extend to claims levied
against general practice nurses or other healthcare staff individually The
employer only assumes liability up to a certain point, defined by the amount of
monetary damages an indemnity policy will remit In essence, general practice
nurses are subject to the same visit homepage legal scrutiny as general
practitioners and specialists such as gynaecologists and obstetricians
— the two spheres of medicine most often implicated in malpractice
lawsuits according to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare's most
recently available statistics The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare
5. published its most recent collection of data in the latter portion of 2011 for the
years 2008 and 2009
6. A total of 9,173 medical indemnity claims were logged to the institute 5,072
such claims arose from the public sector, and 4,101 indemnity claims arose
from the private sector Interestingly, the total number of claims increased over
the previous year, which documented a total of 8,555 claims As previously
mentioned, the three most implicated practitioners in indemnity lawsuits
included obstetricians, gynaecologists and general practitioners, traditionally
the most implicated of all medical professionals in civil liability claims
7. General practice nurses who are interested in acquiring supplemental
medical indemnity insurance in the near future would do well to recognize that
more than half of all claims reported to the Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare originated from public sector healthcare facilities Private practices
accounted for only 38% of all claims According to the APNA, general practice
nurses should also remain aware of the scope of their medical expertise,
however limited it may be
8. Treatment and procedural complaints accounted for 44% of all claims logged
to the Institute of Health and Welfare from 2008-2009 In light of these
statistics, the APNA, among other similar healthcare profession organizations,
has strongly advised general practice nurses against providing medical care
beyond their specific discipline Professional indemnity insurance for nurses
even covers non-clinical healthcare provisions which may not be covered
under an employer's practice policy
9. Given the proper insurance cover, 96% of all indemnity claims in Australia are
settled for less than $10,000; however, the remaining 4% can award damages
in excess of $500,000 The APNA has thus recommended that potential
members thoroughly review an indemnity policy's product disclosure statement
in order to determine whether the insurance cover in question truly is
appropriate to a specific medical discipline
