If you receive notification of a claim arising out of your clinical practice, what you need to do next depends on the sector you are working in.

NHS GP, nurse practitioner and GP specialist trainee based in England and Wales

Most claims arising from NHS GP work where the incident was after 1 April 2019 will be dealt with by NHS Resolution as part of the Clinical Negligence Scheme for General Practice (CNSGP). There are exceptions which are outlined in this document.

If the claim falls within the scope of CNSGP, NHS Resolution will be able to guide you through the claims process. If you have any concerns, you can always contact the MDU too, and our expert teams will be able to help.

There are some claims arising from clinical practice that the CNSGP does not cover – for example, claims for discrimination under the Equality Act and from paid-for medical reports. The MDU’s member guide outlines the types of issues that may fall outside the scope of CNSGP, for which the MDU can offer assistance. If you are in any doubt, please contact us for specific advice on professional indemnity.

If you receive a claim from a patient related to NHS GP work that occurred before 1 April 2019 and during a period of MDU membership, contact us immediately and follow the guidance below for GPs based in other areas of the UK who work privately.

Private and NHS medical practitioners based in Scotland, Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland, Channel Islands, or Isle of Man

Although there are some exceptions, NHS GP work in Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man will not be covered by a state-backed scheme. Therefore, any claim for compensation arising out of your clinical work should be notified to the MDU. The same applies to private GPs.

As soon as you receive notification of a claim, contact us by email on claims@themdu.com. Alternatively, you can send us claims information by post to:

MDU Services Limited
One Canada Square
London
E14 5GS

You should send us the following:

a copy of the letter and any other forms that you have received from the solicitor instructed by the claimant – there is no need to redact the patient’s details
a brief, personally signed note instructing the MDU to assist you
a note of the address (preferably an email address) that you would like us to use for future correspondence
any complaint correspondence
records of any significant event audits, meetings or investigation reports where the matter was discussed
a report of your own role (for more detail on this, see below)
any records, including copies of any paper records and a printout of all computer-held records if you have access to them. These can also be sent by email to claims@themdu.com, or by special delivery. These do not need to be anonymised.

If you don’t have all the documents, contact us with what you do have rather than delay getting in touch.

Consultants in private practice

Contact us as soon as you receive notification of a potential claim arising out of your private work. Please email claims@themdu.com with the following information:

a copy of the letter and any other forms that you have received from the solicitor instructed by the claimant – there is no need to redact the patient’s details
a brief, personally signed note instructing the MDU to assist you
a note of the address (preferably an email address) that you would like us to use for future correspondence
any complaint correspondence
records of any significant event audits, meetings or investigation reports where the matter was discussed if you have access to them
a report of your own role (for more detail on this, see below)
your private records for the patient, including any handwritten records, computerised records and letters. There is no need to obtain copies of records held by private hospitals; please only send us records that you hold. The records can be sent by email to claims@themdu.com, or by special delivery. There is no need for these to be anonymised.

If you don’t have all the documents, contact us with what you do have rather than delay getting in touch.

For all practitioners with claims being handled by the MDU, records must usually be disclosed within one month of receiving a request, so please act quickly. Further advice on this is available from the ICO.

Once we have heard from you, we will open a file, write to the claimant's solicitors to confirm that we have received their letter and inform them that we will be representing your interests in the future. We ask the solicitors not to communicate directly with you again, but to correspond via the MDU.

If you receive further correspondence or court documents from the claimant's solicitor, please forward them to the MDU as soon as possible – they can be scanned and emailed or sent by recorded delivery. You should keep a copy for your own file.

We may also ask you to provide:

a typed transcript of any handwritten clinical entries, indicating who wrote each entry (for example, by using the initials of the staff involved)
a clear photocopy of any entries from relevant records, such as message books
audit trails of computerised records.

If appropriate, the MDU will liaise with the claimant’s solicitor about disclosure to them of any medical records that you provide to us.

Although we will always check any records provided to us, please tell us if the records contain references to third parties, or if you believe any entries should be withheld because disclosure is likely to breach the confidentiality of a third party, or be seriously detrimental to the patient.

The realities of clinical practice mean that notes are often brief and abbreviated. Any omissions in your notes can be addressed in your factual account. You must not attempt to amend the original records in any way.

Your factual account

We ask you to provide a full, typed, factual account of the events in question, with reference to your clinical notes. This is solely for our use and is not for disclosure to the claimant's solicitors.

You may find you can't remember everything that happened – that’s completely normal. If this is the case, just let us know and comment on your clinical management based on your usual practice and the notes you made at the time.

If you can remember the relevant consultations, you must give the MDU as full an account as possible at this stage. The claimant may have several years in which to decide whether to pursue a formal claim, so it is vital to write down what you remember sooner rather than later.

This may take time and effort, but it is time well spent if we need to prepare a defence of your clinical management at a later date.

Notification of a claim: what to send us

Dr Claire Wratten

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