A doctor who set up a seven-day pilot hub struggled to get indemnity for practice nurses working there at weekends.
Dr Patrick Geraghty who helped set up the GP Access Fund pilot in Leeds West told our sister publication Pulse he had problems when he tried to get indemnity from medical defence unions.
He said: “They don’t seem to have got their heads around hub working and nurses. So at the moment it is mainly being doctor-run, with healthcare assistants as well because they are covered by the doctors’ indemnity.
He thought problem could be that practice nurses might see patients from other practices. However he said this was not an issue as the hub set-up avoids this.
“This isn’t as out of hours service,” he told Nursing in Practice’s sister publication, Pulse.
”This is extended access so we all have access to the computer systems of all of the 125 practices.”
The problems mean the three hubs do not use practice nurses at weekends.
He said he wanted to employ practice nurses and they offer “cheaper” clinical time.
He wants the NHS England to help resolve the issue.
Last week NHS England boss Simon Stevens announced a £5 million package to help GPs taking on extra work to help with extra demand over winter.
MDU’s deputy head of underwriting Dr Sharmala Moodley said it had more than 10,000 nursing members, with most of them working in primary care.
She said it can extend cover for nurses doing extra work outside the practice.
Dr Geraghty is now discussing indemnity with MPS which said it is committed to providing flexible options. It said these cover including hubs and other collaborative ways of working.
Head of risk and underwriting policy Dr Nick Clements said: “We can offer a number of indemnity options for nurses working in general practice.”
He said it provides bespoke options fro hubs using multidisciplinary teams.
