Introduction

As an MDU member you can practise with confidence

We are a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to our members' interests. We are the market leader for medical defence in the UK.

We offer you expert guidance, personal support and a robust defence if your clinical competence or care of patients is questioned.

Our team is led and staffed by doctors with real-life experience of the pressures and challenges faced in practice.

We have an unmatched track-record of helping members overcome the challenges which could threaten their livelihood.

You can practise with confidence because we are on your side, and by your side.

This is your guide to MDU membership. It describes the main benefits and responsibilities of membership.

Benefits of membership

We use the mutual fund to provide assistance to members. We are not an insurance company. If you ask us for assistance or indemnity, this may be provided, at our Board of Management’s discretion, under our Memorandum and Articles of Association.

Occurrence based membership

If the benefits we provide for this period of membership are on an occurrence basis, this means you can ask for our assistance as long as you are (or were) our member at the time the incident happened. This applies even if you are no longer a member or have retired or stopped practising. Your estate can even ask for our help after your death.

Claims made membership

If the benefits for this period of membership are on a claims made basis, this means that you can request assistance with claims, GMC investigations and other matters arising from a specific incident as long as the specific incident happened while you were in claims made membership, you remained in claims made membership or you were in an Extended Reporting Period when:

a. the specific incident was notified to us by you; or

b. you first requested MDU assistance with a claim or other medico-legal problem arising from the specific incident.

If you were an MDU member on an occurrence basis before becoming a claims made member, you can still ask for assistance for an incident which happened during your occurrence membership. This applies even if you are no longer a member, have retired or stopped practising. Your estate can even ask for our help after your death.

Glossary

Assistance: Support we provide, which can include legal advice and legal representation.

Claims made: You can ask for our assistance with an incident, as long as you were an active member when it happened, and report it to us while your membership is in force.

Extended reporting period: The ongoing right to request assistance from the MDU, when you are no longer a claims made member, for a specific incident which happened when you were a paying claims made member.

Indemnity: Compensation we can provide for you to pay damages for clinical negligence.

Mutual fund: Money we collect in the form of members' subscriptions which we hold to defend our members and provide other membership benefits.

Occurrence based: The right to ask for our help at any point in the future as long as you were a member when the incident happened, even if you have since left, retired or taken a career break, such as parental leave.

Specific incident: A circumstance which happened with an individual patient or in relation to a distinct medico-legal report on a particular date, which may give rise to a claim or request for medico-legal support.

Special provisions: Where your access to our benefits of membership is tailored to your individual practice.

Vicarious liability: When you are legally responsible for the acts or omissions of people who work for you.