Filenews 21 June 2024
The insurance contract against civil liability for professional negligence is made mandatory for the practice of the medical profession in Cyprus by a law passed by the House of Representatives.
The relevant bill was submitted by DISY MPs and aims to introduce regulations in the Registration of Doctors Law, so that a doctor who is registered in the Medical Registry and practices medicine in the Republic, as well as a company of doctors, are obliged to maintain in force an insurance contract against civil liability for professional negligence.
An amendment by the parties DISY, AKEL and DIKO introduces the obligation for a doctor whose registration in the medical register has been approved to submit a copy of the insurance contract for 30 days. Both the law and the amendment were passed unanimously by the Members present.
In her statement, one of the rapporteurs of the proposal, DISY MP Savvia Orfanidou, said that the reason for the bill was a case of compensation being adjudicated by a court for professional negligence by a doctor, who could not pay because he did not have insurance coverage.
There was a legislative gap, as Orfanidou said, for doctors who were outside the GHS or did not work in hospitals and were not obliged to have insurance coverage. At the same time, he said that the law also covers special permits for doctors coming from abroad.
