Major benefits include:

• Legal Liability Insurance Policy
• An advisory service run by dentists, for dentists
• Substantially lower premiums
• Guaranteed £10,000,000 limit of indemnity
• Nil Excess
• Cover for regulatory issues
• 24 hour help line
• Worldwide Cover in respect of Good Samaritan Acts
• Run-off cover for up to 20 years in respect of death, disablement, retirement and repatriation
• Risk Management Advice

Dental Shield—Clinical Indemnity from the DPA

The first week of April 2008 saw the launch of possibly the most significant benefit negotiated by this Association – Dental Shield dental indemnity insurance for members. We decided to introduce an indemnity scheme because it is a statutory requirement, therefore of interest to all our members. You may know that any dentist can go to an insurance broker who can, in turn, go to a medical underwriter at Lloyd’s insurance market and obtain insurance—until now, this was only the route of last resort for dentists who had been refused insurance through one of the mainstream providers. We thought that the existing schemes were overpriced and complacent given the dynamic indemnity market in the 21st century and that our members deserve more choice and better value.

Dental Shield indemnifies you (currently up to £10m per claim or total in the year) in respect of any legal liability incurred in the course of professional services to a patient in the conduct of your business, arising out of a breach of professional duty consequent on any negligent act, error or omission causing injury.

Significant Cost Savings

The DPA approached the largest independent, privately owned, global insurance broker—Lockton—and with the underwriters W.R. Berkley Insurance (Europe) Limited and Heritage Group has developed a fully featured indemnity policy for dentists that covers you up to and including representation before the General Dental Council. The most immediately tangible benefit of Dental Shield is that we have managed to come in at a premium that is significantly below existing providers such as Dental Protection or Dental Defence. MDU is typically charging about £1,850, DPL charges typically £1,525 but Dental Shield will typically be charging £1,250 a potential saving of around £500 every year depending on your current insurer.

If your type of practice has an atypical risk profile, the premium is adjusted accordingly—the proposal form gives you an opportunity to explain in detail how you work. As with the other schemes, this will rise if dentists are carrying out high risk procedures. Every dentist is assessed individually however we expect to come in below the existing insurers in most cases. This is because we already provide clinical advice to our members so they have already paid for that in their membership fee.

Which Type?

There are two types of indemnity—claims-incurred and claims-made. In the former the policy in force at the time when the negligent act occurred is responsible for the claim. In the latter the policy in force at the time the negligent act was notified is responsible for the claim.

Dental Shield is claims-made insurance. Much has been made of the difference between the two systems, but they both work in practice and neither has a clear advantage over the other. There is no compulsion to buy run-off cover, which can lead to uncompensated patients—so DPA Dental Shield has run-off cover for most circumstances built-in. In respect of death, permanent retirement or voluntary repatriation to country of origin then the cover continues for a period of 20 years from the expiry of the policy in force at the time of death, retirement or repatriation.

In respect of maternity leave the current policy will be extended for a period of one year at no additional cost. Should you not return to work after maternity then the ‘Permanent Retirement’ provision will apply. Full details of the run-off provisions are available on application.

Legal Expertise

The DPA, Lockton and the joint underwriters interviewed four top legal firms. The winner on all counts was Browne Jacobson—one of the largest law firms in the Midlands with regional and national reach through its offices in Nottingham, Birmingham and London. It prides itself on developing long-term mutually beneficial partnerships with like-minded clients in the public, commercial and insurance sectors.

The service Dental Shield provides will in no way be inferior to the other providers—fortunately we do not have their overheads! The service in no way compromises on the basic values of indemnity, legal expertise, clinical support and customer service. It will appeal to members who want to fulfil their statutory requirement and have a full-service provider while avoiding unnecessary expense.

The Underwriters

The W.R. Berkley group of companies is a leading “A” rated global insurance group with over US $15.6 billion in assets and over $3billion in shareholder funds. The Heritage Group is a member of Lloyd’s, the world’s leading specialist insurance market, which is famous for never having failed to pay a claim in its long history. Lloyd’s has capacity to write about £15.95bn of business as 1 January 2008 and is rated A by rating agency A.M. Best.

How to Join

Dental Shield is only available to DPA members and once accepted, cover can begin immediately. Application forms for the DPA and proposal forms for Dental Shield are available from the DPA Office—ring 0207 636 1072 for details.