Insurance
The insurance available to PDA members is placed with reputable underwriters and these arrangements are made by a specialist pharmacy insurance broker called the Pharmacy Insurance Agency (PIA) Ltd who are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority.
Insurance is essential to the service provided by the PDA, for several reasons:
Financial capability
It provides substantial financial capability to enable PDA to provide its legal defence services and, if needs be, to settle compensation claims made against PDA members right up to £10 million pounds per member (in some cases), per incident. This is the fundamental reason why insurance is so important.
Today, around 85% of the defence episodes provided by The PDA to members are not in anyway connected or funded by Insurance. They are provided as membership benefits and funded by membership subscriptions. The PDA is a non-profit-making organisation.
Fundamental principles
If you are an employed or locum pharmacist it is essential that you understand that it is not in your best interests to rely upon indemnity insurance cover provided by your employer or by your employer’s representative organisation. When the most serious of problems occur, you must be confident that your insurer is devoted exclusively to your interests and is only focused upon providing you with the best possible defence strategy. This must never be compromised by concerns over your employer’s interests or reputation. Sometimes, it may even be necessary to defend a pharmacist by placing the blame where it really lies; upon the doorstep of the employer – such as when chronic staffing shortages and untrained staff have led to an error. The PDA is a defence association that has no links to any employer or to any employer’s representative organisation. It can only act in the interests of the individual pharmacist and does not need to concern itself with the protection of the reputation of the employer or the employer’s brand. The insurance schemes which are backed by reputable underwriters and which are arranged by The Pharmacy Insurance Agency use a three-pronged approach to provide total protection:
- Legal Defence Costs Insurance
- Professional Indemnity (PI) Insurance
- Public Liability Insurance
Insurance Complaints
If you have any questions or complaints regarding your insurance policy then please click here for information about our complaints procedure.
