THE leader of the body which insures Scottish GPs against damages claims says a new state-backed insurance plan would heap extra pressure on already strained budgets.

Chris Kenny, chief of the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland (MDDUS), said it would be a “fool’s errand” which would put extra pressure on Scotland’s health budget and push up overheads for general practice in the midst of an ongoing crisis in recruitment and retention.

UK Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt announced in October he would press ahead with creating a state-backed insurance scheme for GPs in England by 2019 in a bid to tackle spiralling costs, but Scottish ministers have not yet committed to doing the same – saying they would first observe the roll-out down south.

On average, indemnity costs for GPs rose by 50 per cent between 2010 and 2016 as the number and value of claims escalated. In England, where costs are now typically £9,000 to £10,000 a year for a full-time GP, the rise has been blamed for driving some family doctors to quit the profession or cut their hours, especially out-of-hours practices, which attract higher indemnity fees.

However, in Scotland – where the number and value of claims is generally lower – GPs have been less affected, and are typically paying about £1,500 to £2,000 a year for cover. Mr Kenny said: “It fluctuates a bit year by year, but what we don’t have in Scotland is some of the really big claims that you have south of the Border. We’ve paid out £10 million on a claim south of the Border; in Scotland our maximum is usually in the region of £2-3m.”

Mr Kenny said he believed there was less of a compensation culture in ScotEngland and less prominent marketing by medical negligence lawyers “to flush claims out”.

He added: “At one level you could say, ‘does that mean Scottish patients are losing out?’, but I don’t think it does, partly because there’s still legal aid in Scotland for clinical negligence cases.”

“The success rate of Scottish claims is usually a bit higher than in England. In England, we normally see off between 70 and 75 per cent of claims with no payment at all. In Scotland, that figure is a bit lower. So we are always there for the public when there’s a proper claim and one of our members has made a genuine mistake, but what we’re not doing is wasting their money throwing it at spurious cases to make them go away.”

The proposed state-backed indemnity scheme for England would invite GPs to sign up for an annual membership fee, but it is only expected to cover them against negligence claims. GPs would still have to pay medical defence unions, including MDDUS, which represents one-third of the workforce south of the Border, for other specialist legal advice such as help for fatal accident inquiries or GMC disciplinary hearings.

Mr Kenny said if the Scottish Government followed the English plan its members’ bills could actually increase.

He said: “We get the economies of scale and the benefits of expertise by bundling all that together with claims as an integrated predict. The Government would only cover claims, and GPs would end up paying twice and there is a risk that when you do that – because you’re overheads would be doubled – you’d end up paying more.

“To us it would be a bit of a fool’s errand to waste any of the resource they’ve got when there isn’t a direct issue.”

A Scottish Government spokesman said: “We are working closely with medical defence unions in Scotland and the British Medical Association to seek the best solution for all GPs in Scotland.

“We also welcome the move by the MDDUS to protect members by freezing their current fee rates.”