Wrong paint, wrong picture

In a single paragraph, Asgar Hassanali paints a picture of the philosophy, funding and market position of the mutual medical defence organisations (PB, October 2004, pp 37-39). The picture painted is wholly wrong as far as The Medical Protection Society is concerned.

A glance at the 2003 Annual Report shows MPS to be fully funded for all known claims with not a hint of financial pressure, let alone collapse.

MPS membership - now totalling over 220,000 members - is growing in the UK and overseas, making the MPS the largest medical indemnifier in the world. No signs of desertion there. In fact, when St Paul closed shop on its medical indemnity business in the UK, it was MPS that picked up the pieces for doctors whose insurance policies were not to be renewed.

It is true that the MPS is not an insurance company but a mutual association providing membership benefits on a discretionary basis. But what we offer is the envy of most other professions - occurrence-based indemnity with no caps and no exclusion causes.

Discretion allows the MPS to approach all requests for assistance with a bias to assist providing potential benefits far beyond those to be found in an insurance policy. And all of that from a not-for-profit organisation so there are no shareholders' dividends to fund and no insurance premium tax to pay either.

The MPS is thriving thanks to a reputation for providing a service no insurer has ever attempted to emulate.

Dr Gerard Panting, Communications & policy director, Medical Protection Society.