Pharmacy and Pharmacists Insurance

You are required to hold Pharmacy  Professional Indemnity Insurance, which is a policy to protect you against claims by patients who have suffered loss or damage due to your medical negligence.

Other insurance covers that you should consider adding to your insurance programme are:

Commercial Shop Insurance – which can provide cover for your contents and includes Employers Liability insurance.

Fleet Insurance – if you have two or more cars, vans or a mix of both.

Management Liability insurance – which provides cover for the business entity and its Directors should claims be made against you.

Cyber Insurance – which provides cover for your pharmacy in the event of a cyber-attack.

Yes. Pharmacy Indemnity Insurance is a legal requirement Under article 32 of the Pharmacy Order 2010, “you must have appropriate indemnity cover”. If you’re negligent and someone comes to harm, they’ll receive the compensation and legal costs they’re entitled to.

Choosing suitable Pharmacy Indemnity Insurance cover “Your indemnity” arrangement may be:

• an insurance policy
• organised by your employer
  through a professional body, trade union or defence organisation
• a combination of the above
• You must make sure that your pharmacy indemnity arrangements provide suitable cover. It needs to be appropriate to the nature and extent of the risks involved in your practice, so enough compensation will be paid if a successful claim is made against you.

Pharmacy Indemnity Insurance, also known as Pharmacy Professional Indemnity, is designed to protect pharmacists and pharmacy owners from claims, investigations, and subsequent proceedings filed by patients or other third parties who allege harm or loss as a consequence of an improper service, product, advice, or counsel you have provided them with.

Simply put, it covers claims arising from your conduct and duty of care, such as a dispensing error.

Pharmacy Indemnity Insurance is still applicable for any products or advice you provide for customers, clients, or others, even if this is provided for free, as you could still be liable for claims for incorrect advice.

The two main policies we offer for pharmacies are designed to protect you and give peace of mind by defending you and your business against unexpected mishaps – everything from damage to your premises and injuries to staff or customers, to claims made against any advice you give and prescriptions you fulfil.

It can help you to get back up and running quickly if your pharmacy premises are damaged or even destroyed by a serious incident like fire or flood ‒ and even help replace any income you lose out on while getting everything back to normal.

Run-off cover is important, as once your pharmacy is sold, or you have retired a claim could come in for up to three years since you have dispensed the item or 18 years for a child. Because the effects of mistakes can take time to manifest in patients, run-off cover is required as it provides a special professional indemnity policy that provides cover related to services provided when the business was in operation.