Patients making medical negligence claims against public and voluntary hospitals from July will no longer have to sue individual doctors or nurses, the Department of Health and Children has confirmed.
Instead they will claim against the individual voluntary hospital or against the health board in the case of a public hospital.
The State Claims Agency will take over the handling of medical negligence claims from July 1st from the independent bodies such as the Medical Defence Union which have traditionally done this work. Awards made will be paid by the Exchequer.
The move means doctors will no longer have to pay for cover against malpractice claims for their work in voluntary and public hospitals.
Effectively, the State will now cover them for their work - both public and private - in the hospitals in which they are employed. But consultants will still have to arrange their own cover for any private work they do elsewhere and this has angered the Irish Hospital Consultants' Association.
The IHCA has said it will not co-operate with the new scheme unless consultants' work in private hospitals is also covered by the State. Otherwise the cost of cover for work in private hospitals will become unaffordable. It points out that the national health strategy envisages many more public patients having procedures done in private hospitals.The issue is under discussion with the Department of Health and Children.
At present the State reimburses more than €50 million paid by doctors to bodies such as the Medical Defence Union for indemnity against medical negligence claims. The cost of claims has now reached record levels. In the last five months alone, three obstetric cases have been settled for a total of €11.1 million, the MDU says. Last year the MDU raised the cost of cover for obstetricians to €499,000.
Under the new system bodies such as the MDU will continue to cover doctors for such costs as defending themselves before the Medical Council or before tribunals. However, medical negligence claims will be handled by the State Claims Agency which is part of the National Treasury Management Agency.
The Department of Health believes the new system will benefit patients and the State. Patients will have to sue only one institution rather than a number of individuals. This, in turn, will reduce the costs which are now incurred when a number of people in the one institution have to defend themselves separately.
Meanwhile, an insurance company which has withdrawn from insuring doctors against medical malpractice suits says it is looking for an alternative insurer for about 100 GPs and dentists it covers.
St Paul Ireland Insurance is part of a worldwide body which has made a policy decision to withdraw globally from medical malpractice insurance. A spokeswoman for the Irish division said management at international level had come to the conclusion that covering medical malpractice would never be profitable.