Fitness to Practise

GPs and other medical professionals are exposed to very particular legal insurance risks that arise from the intensively pressured environment they work in. State-backed liability insurance provides protection against actions for civil damages that are brought against practitioners working in the NHS. Medical defence unions may provide assistance to members to defend allegations of professional misconduct on a discretionary basis and surgery medical malpractice policies respond where a patient has suffered harm. However, these arrangements will not respond to particular sets of circumstances - and this is where Fitness to Practise Insurance comes in.

We are delighted to have partnered with Arag PLC and have designed a comprehensive, specialist product that goes beyond "fitness to practise". Our Fitness to Practise insurance policy is available to buy online in a matter of minutes through ourselves - a specialist broker in the market - to individuals or groups of individuals within a practice setting, or to NHS or private medical practices.

Fitness to Practise in simple terms is the ability of a doctor or other healthcare practitioner to practise safely and independently without the need for intervention by the regulator. It encompasses competence, probity, diligence, the ability to work within their own limitations, safe clinical and/or managerial practice, according to the role the practitioner is undertaking or the stage of training they have reached. It includes being able to get on with patients and colleagues, to work collaboratively in the best interests of patients and the organisation, being in good enough health to be able to perform the role (even if the doctor lives with a disability). A doctor must be able to make good decisions, keep good records, and remain up to date in their sphere of practice.

Where a doctor compromises their position, or patient safety, or otherwise undermines the profession or their employer by acting or omitting to act in a particular way, the GMC may determine to take action against the doctor. This might be by way of providing guidance, issuing a warning, imposing undertakings, or referring a case to a fitness to practise hearing. If a doctor’s fitness to practise is found to be impaired, they can be restricted by way of conditions of registration, be suspended, or be struck off (also known as erasure from the register). The GMC/MPTS Indicative Sanctions Guidance also provides an analysis of the types of cases where fitness to practise is likely to be impaired. For further information and regarding the meaning of fitness to practise, we recommend to visit Doctors Defence Service where this description originates from.