Public Liability Insurance (PL) - Health Professionals

The word "Liability" conjures up all sorts of negative images, and in our experience there are still many health professionals who get confused about whose policy covers what when other Health Professionals, organisations, or Landlords/ Room Providers are involved. What follows may help to sort out the different applications of Liability insurance (as opposed to Medical Malpractice).

PL covers your liability at law for allegations of negligence causing injury to people or damage to their property.  Whilst there are numerous other sections of cover, this is the core of it.  If you damage their property when making a home visit or working away, or injury them because of, say a loose carpet or faulty treatment couch, as the injury was not directly caused by the treatment itself, it would come under Public Liability.  If a Practitioner rents a room, then damage caused to the premises by a  negligent act would also be covered.

However, Practitioners should check that any landlord renting them space has a public liability cover in place in case patient slips on a staircase due to faulty maintenance or other reasons where blame could be attached to the owner. Most Balen Schemes covers PL where it is your legal liability but clearly not if it is someone else’s.

Property Owners Liability is Public Liability but with a significant difference! It applies if a Health Professional actually owns a property, rather than uses someone else’s For example an owner could be held legally liable for not maintaining the property properly, or if a tree fell down on neighbours land, or a tile fell off roof and injured a passer-by. This sort of thing usually comes with or can be added to, a buildings insurance.

 Products Liability Insurance - Health Products

Products Liability is much misunderstood.  It covers accidental injury to persons arising from supply,sale, manufacture, demonstration, testing of a product for which you could be held legally liable.  Manufacturers need it, suppliers need it.  Many Policies available as part of a Commercial Insurance Package usually offer limited cover which does not extend to design, advice given in supply of product, nor defects in formulae etc.

In the Medical or Cosmetics Sector, there are very few insurers giving cover and typically it has been expensive.  Balens now have a lower cost range of covers for this specially designed, and we can cover exports to the Americas and cover worldwide (not always easily available).  We are also currently designing our own low cost scheme which will shortly be available.

We look after a variety of Businesses in the Health Sector who import, design, supply,export and produce remedies, cosmetics, health devices and equipment, natural products, health aids and supplements.

The requirements of the MHRA are getting more onerous as further legislation from Europe drifts into our awareness, so vigilance is required to make sure your product supply business has adequate protection for commercial risks. Currently the Rules relating to the supply of Herbal Products in connection with a consultation, or without a consultation is under debate.  Please see their website regarding issues surrounding natural products.

As well as Businesses selling and producing Products, Health Professionals themselves can also get confused as to how and where their requirements can be met, there follows as an extract from an article David Balen wrote on this topic...

Products Liability for Therapists and Companies

A matter which is raised from time to time by Therapists is the question of selling products to non – patients, such as relatives or friends, people at talks and exhibitions, mail order or selling to other therapists.

Under the EEC directive, the last person or company in the supply chain is held liable for any defective product causing injury, even if they did not manufacture it themselves.  It may be possible to claim back eventually to a manufacturer, but this is not always the case for a variety of reasons, and the end-supplier could be faced with hefty legal bills, and possibly a substantial claim for damages.

As you will probably realise, a Malpractice policy is designed to cover you for advice and therapy given in accordance with your training and experience, and to protect you and the public in the “patient”/ therapist relationship.  A Products Liability cover protects the therapist if held legally liable for causing injury or property damage to any other person (whether a patient or not) as a result of supplying, modifying, testing, demonstrating a product such as a medicine of therapeutic aid

The vast majority of practitioners have a history of exercising due care, they take a case history, understand contra-indications and normally have a beneficial effect on your clients within the context of their chosen therapy. 

In face-to-face consultation, a therapist can be aware of the patients needs from session to session, and get feedback quickly as different types of medicine or therapeutic aid are supplied.  Claims and incident rates are very low, and everyone benefits from commensurately low premiums.  Most policies these days either include, or offer an extension for Products Liability cover to Patients/Clients, where there is a therapeutic relationship, case history taken etc. The case not so clear – cut for supply to non-patients – for example other therapists, companies, shops, and members of the general public.

There is a lot of confusion amongst therapists who think that selling their creations, or indeed medicines, cosmetics, aids etc is a part of their practice, and therefore automatically covered for sales to anyone by their existing insurance.  Although some policies may cover a limited amount in respect of sales to non- patients, many do not, and you would need to check with your insurer to find out, as these aspects of practice are not usually immediately obvious from the policy documentation.

Commercial Sales are not really an extension of the patient / client relationship, and therefore often fall outside the scope and intention of the practice cover.  Some therapists think that “selling on,” means selling to anybody, but I am afraid this is not so.  It normally means selling on to your clients after providing treatment or advice.  Selling products to others is really a retail function, so a separate cover is normally needed.

Most lower cost schemes cover a defect in the product causing injury or damage.  In other words, cover is only given for innocently passing on a product, where the ingredients were faulty in some way.  Cover is not provided for defective formulation, although some schemes may include incorrect bottling or labelling.  Cover for failure to perform intended function (Products Guarantee Insurance) would not be covered.

Balens have various low cost facilities for providing basic defective products cover, and we can offer a Pharmaceutical Liability Scheme which covers design, advice,formulation and can even cover exporting to other countries including (unusually) the USA.  Premiums are of course, much higher!

Inevitably, we are subjected to more laws and bureaucracy as the years roll by, and consumer protection measures become more and more developed.  I believe it is becoming more and more important to Therapists and Health Businesses to review their existing arrangements so that they do not become out of step.  Therapists are often more interested in looking after others than looking after themselves!

Links

The MHRA - the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. Please note that by opening this hyperlink, viewers will be subject to the "terms of use" applying to that website.