Written by FCSA Business Partner, Caunce O’Hara & Co
Employing medical staff as an umbrella company can be a lucrative business investment. It is well documented that the NHS is struggling for staff to fill all manner of positions from nurses and other qualified medical staff, to ancillary workers including; cleaners and catering staff.
It is important to remember that insuring staff for the medical sector carries different levels of risk to most other sectors.
These are the 5 key things to consider when insuring your medical workers:
- Consider your exposure as the employer of the worker as there are a lot of instances where workers suffer injury through manual handling etc.
- Consider your exposure in the contractual chain e.g.: Do you take on liability for the actions of the worker? Do the agencies accept liability for the actions of the placements in their terms of business with their end client?
- Be familiar with the cover provided by your insurances as it will contain a medical malpractice exclusion in general.
- Do the workers already have cover via their own medical malpractice policy or via membership to a certain organisation such as Medical Defence Union for example or the Dental Defence Union.
- Does the cover afforded by their membership still cover them whilst working via an Umbrella company as The Royal College of Nurses and Society of Radiographers exclude indemnity when the individual is working via an Umbrella Company.
Checking these points, as a rule of thumb, prior to placing employees in the medical sector could safeguard your company from any potential claims while also safeguarding your employees.
For further details please contact Caunce O’Hara’s Umbrella Account Executive, Mark Lloyd on 0161 833 2100
