Is your surgeon adequately insured?

Where surgery is performed on an NHS basis the hospital is insured for the mistakes made by their  surgeons and other members of staff. Where surgery however is on a private basis it is the responsibility of the surgeon himself to arrange insurance cover.

I recently concluded a case where my client had surgery at a well known cosmetic surgery chain of hospitals. She suffered a post operative infection which was poorly managed with the result she underwent numerous further and avoidable surgical procedures.

The claim was made against the surgeon and also the hospital for breach of contract. The surgeon deliberately chose to be uncooperative during the case with the result my client secured judgment against him. After some pressing the hospital eventually provided us with the surgeon’s insurance details. He is an Italian national. The insurance policy was taken out in Italy and subject to Italian jurisdiction. The judgment my client obtained in England was therefore meaningless. To pursue the surgeon further she would have to litigate in Italy which would be costly, impractical and with no guarantee of an outcome. In reality the surgeon’s insurance wasn’t worth the paper it was written on. Something I suspect the surgeon and the hospital were aware of.

The hospital eventually settled the case but only after months of procrastination. I was further shocked to learn the hospital was not insured for the claim, raising the risk my client would not recover the compensation and costs due to her. Fortunately they were eventually paid but only after a significant delay.

I appreciate there is always much to consider before embarking on cosmetic surgery and  insurance is unlikely to be foremost in your mind but when things go wrong, which fortunately is only in a minority of cases, you want to be sure redress is available to you and worryingly that was so nearly taken away from my client due to the failures of the surgeon and hospital to have adequate insurance in place.

by Sara Westwood at sarawestwood@m-j-p.co.uk