All activities undertaken by a hospital employee pharmacist in the normal course of their employment as long as the activity is one that would be deemed to be an acceptable one by the Law and Ethics Committee of the RPSGB. This policy is also applicable for pharmacists working as employees in prison pharmacy.
Protection is also provided for :
Many hospital pharmacist employees undertake odd day locum work, usually on Saturdays or during holidays. The standard employee scheme does not extend cover in this situation.
However, an odd day locum extension facility is available. Payment of a small additional fee extends cover as long as the income from locum work does not exceed £4,500 per annum.
The policy will not provide you with protection in the event that your hospital requires you to undertake any work on an external sub-contracted basis so as to help the hospital generate revenue.
e.g providing a clinical ward service to a local private hospital for a fee paid to your employer when you are not an employee of the local private hospital. If you do undertake any such activities, then you will need to take out the 'odd day locum work' insurance extension.
The selling of medicines in a retail situation introduces new tiers of risk. Although this is not common, some hospital pharmacists are involved in selling medicines in a retail pharmacy that has been set up in the hospital by the hospital. If you sell medicines in such a way, then you will need to take out the 'odd day locum work' insurance extension.
A small group of pharmacists, usually those in the more senior positions, are also involved in the design and signing off of the PGDs under which many of their colleagues ultimately work. When the PGDs' design and sign-off activity first came into operation just a few years ago, the practice caused a considerable amount of worry to insurance underwriters. Although it only involved a relatively small number of senior pharmacists, it was a practice which the underwriters considered to be leading edge and consequently more risk-prone than established hospital pharmacy activities. Consequently, the insurance underwriters only offered insurance cover for the writing and signing off of PGDs on condition that those involved took out a more expensive specialist insurance policy. However, during the recent discussions with underwriters about the launch of PDA for hospital pharmacists, the PDA managed to persuade the underwriters to soften their stance on this issue and bring the design and signing off of PGDs under the scope of standard cover. As a result of this, from 1 October 2005, which is the date PDA membership was opened up to all hospital pharmacists, the writing and signing off of PGDs is now fully covered for all full PDA members and there is no longer any need to upgrade the cover by taking out a specialist policy.
Primary care pharmacy work probably entails many activities that are routinely undertaken by hospital pharmacists in the hospital. Examples may include drug information, medication review or the operation of clinics. Whilst working in the hospital, all hospital pharmacy employee pharmacists would be covered for all of these activities. However, should these activities be undertaken in a GP surgery as opposed to in the hospital itself, then a completely new level of potential liability risk is incurred. Protection for pharmacists involved in providing services in GP surgeries will only be provided if they take out the much more comprehensive Primary Care scheme instead of the (PDAH) hospital scheme.
Participation in pharmacist prescribing is not covered, this cover will only be provided by the Primary Care scheme (PDAX)