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INSURANCE ARRANGEMENTS FOR MEDICAL DENTAL PRACTITIONERS WORKING FOR THE UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL Jargon Buster Italicised words in the text are defined or expanded upon here Tort A legal wrong Statute An Act of Parliament or Order or Regulation under an Act Contract A legally binding agreement between 2 or more parties e.g. a research funding agreement Introduction The University is legally liable for the negligent acts and omissions of our employees (the principle of vicarious liability) and has made insurance arrangements to meet this liability. This document aims to explain: How far our insurance extends to indemnify medical and dental practitioners, as well as practitioners in related fields; How our insurance arrangements mesh with those of the NHS and private medical indemnity arrangements; How clinical research projects are insured. How can legal liability arise? Legal liability can arise in a wide variety of different circumstances and law. We can be sued in tort for negligence, nuisance or trespass; under statute (eg. Health and Safety legislation, Medicines for Human Use (Clinical Trials) Regulations); or in contract. In addition, we can be held liable for libel or slander, breach of Data Protection Law or infringement of copyright - to take just a few of the more common allegations. Medical and dental practitioners are mainly concerned about claims for clinical negligence but liability can arise in other areas as well. This document aims to address some of these too. What liability insurance do we hold? Unfortunately, insurance companies will not issue one comprehensive policy to cover us for any legal liability. Instead, cover is split between different policies and all insurance policies contain exclusions. There are also some liability risks where insurance is either not obtainable or it is not economically viable for us to insure. The pie chart shows what cover we hold and the next pa