Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

He has been in the Chamber three or four times this week. A number of people from the medical profession have been in contact with me. Some of them are members of organisations within the medical profession and others are individual medical consultants. The problem lies with the Medical Protection Society, MPS, which is a non-profit organisation that provides insurance for those in private practice. My understanding is that because the number of claims has increased, insurance premia are to rise substantially.

I received a telephone call this morning from someone in the MPS in the UK. I also received an e-mail. It appears that the claims environment for private hospital consultants has deteriorated significantly in the past two years with actuarial estimates of the cost of indemnity per member increasing by more than 90%. That is a result of large increases in both the rate at which hospital consultants are being sued and the average size of the claims. Regrettably, that means the cost of subscriptions must rise to reflect the increasing risk.

The MPS is a non-profit mutual organisation owned by and accountable to members. As I understand it, the capping at the moment for obstetrics, spinal surgery and neurosurgery is €565,000 and for most other areas it is around €1.13 million. Those who approached me said it would be helpful if it is possible to reduce the capping in order to bring some kind of order to what is going on. I understand that from 1 July, insurance for some people in the private sector will be as high as €97,000 and in some cases might rise to more than €100,000. One might argue that medical consultants charge large fees but there are other costs in addition to insurance. One person said recently that it cost them approximately €250,000 per annum before any income is earned.

It is costing on average approximately €250,000 per annum before they have any income, which is a problem.

The other issue that has been highlighted to me is that 41% of elective surgery is carried out by those in private practice. Any reduction in the level of private practice available has the knock-on effect of that having to be dealt with by public hospitals which puts increased pressure on them. I am raising the issue in that context. I know the MPS has had discussions with the State Claims Agency and the Department of Health. However, I tabled this on the Adjournment because the matter is being revised on 1 July.