Essential Insurance For Pharmacists
The
United Kingdom has a variety of pharmacist
categories. They include Primary Care Pharmacist,
Hospital Pharmacist (including Locums), Locum
Pharmacist, Pharmacy Technicians, Dispensary
Assistants, Preregistration Trainee Pharmacists and
Pharmacy Undergraduates. Although many of these
positions are in the NHS (National Health Service)
in the UK, pharmacists are often in a position of
needing to take out their own Liability Insurance
because they may work as locum somewhere else or in
a community pharmacy or are employed in a hospital
and in a community pharmacy as well. Since the NHS
generally will not cover a pharmacist working in a
community pharmacy or other facility, they must make
their own arrangements for insurance. Liability
Insurance is not just for a practicing pharmacist;
if you are a pharmacy student, pharmacy intern or
extern, technician or a locum pharmacist, you may
well need protection as well.
The role of a pharmacist was once to distribute
drugs and leave the explaining to a physician but
today's pharmacist is thought by many to be an
advice giver when a customer needs specific
information about specific drugs. A pharmacist has a
lot of responsibility in that in giving advice
regarding medications, he or she could be held
responsible for knowing if a patient is allergic to
a particular drug as well as being aware of any
other medications the patient is taking that might
cause a reaction when combined with a new
prescription. So who is liable and responsible if a
mistake is made? A pharmacist can be held liable for
wrong advice and be subjected to a claim. It's easy
to unintentionally make a mistake when it comes to
reviewing a patient's prescription record; it begins
with the pharmacist making sure he or she can
interpret the garbled writing of a physician and
ends with making sure that the prescription will not
cause a patient harm.
The
cover you should be researching includes
Professional Indemnity and Public and Product
Liability. A Professional Indemnity policy will
protect you against most claims made by a customer
or other people (third parties) regarding any advice
you give them that is wrong or misleading. On a
broader scale, liability cover will likely protect
you against a claim someone makes referring to an
act or inaction by you that caused damage to someone
or someone's property or caused injury and harm. If
you own your pharmacy business, this is something
you should definitely look into. Consider that
someone is injured whilst on your property and sues
you. If you have to go to court because of a claim,
the legal costs alone could put you out of business.
Liability cover will likely cover the claim and the
legal fees attached to the claim. Take some time to
read through some insurance websites to see what
different liability and professional cover options
are available for you.
More About Professional Indemnity Cover
Examining Professional Indemnity Insurance a bit
more in depth, you will see that this type of cover
will protect you from devastating financial losses
and too often reputation crippling claims made by
clients who are dissatisfied by something you did or
said, which the customer believes caused harm or
financial loss. On your part, this can include
negligence or breach of duty concerning care,
unintentional infringement on someone's copyrights,
trademarks, loss of a client's records or damaged or
stolen documents or even liability stemming from the
theft of money or goods belonging to your client
whilst on your premises. In all of the above
scenarios, Professional Indemnity cover will likely
protect you should you make a mistake in any
services you provided that lead to a client dispute.
Your insurance company will defend you, and even if
you lose, you will likely still be covered for
damages you are liable for as well as the legal
expenses involved.
If you own your own pharmacy and take on any
employees, full-time, part-time, technician,
dispensary assistant, clerical aid or student, you
must by law have Employers' Liability Insurance.
This likely will protect you if an employee files a
claim because he or she becomes ill or is injured
whilst working. You must have a certificate clearly
displayed for all employees and inspectors who
happen to drop by to prove you have this cover and
if you don't you could be fined up to £2,500 each
day you are without it. An important note to
remember is if an employee terminates employment and
falls ill, tracing the illness back to employment
with you, a claim can still be made so always keep
detailed records of employees - present and past.
Public Liability and Product Liability Insurance
Since members of the public deal with you on a daily
basis, if they are hurt or receive damage to their
property, they can file a claim against you. A
Public Liability policy will likely cover you and
your business for damages that are claimed and legal
fees involved. Check Public Liability and Employers'
Liability insurances on the online; you may find
that you can combine the two on one master policy
and save on premiums and a package deal can often
include Product Liability Insurance as well. Because
you are distributing drugs that are produced by
pharmaceutical companies, the chance that a
medication can be found to cause devastating side
effects and result in a lawsuit, might not only fall
into the hands of the pharmaceutical company, but
into yours as well. If the product does cause an
injury or damages property, Product Liability would
likely cover costs of a claim and legal fees.
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