MEDICAL PROTECTION SOCIETY (MPS)

INTRODUCTION
The Medical Protection Society is an independent, non-profit, mutual association for doctors, dentists and healthcare practitioners.

BENEFITS OF MEMBERSHIP
1. Complete Indemnity
If a member faces a negligence claim, MPS can help by providing complete indemnity. In cases undertaken, the member would bear none of the legal costs involved, nor the costs if compensation is awarded to the plaintiff or agreed in an out-of-court settlement. Moreover, there is no upper limit on the total costs we will meet (except in certain countries in the West Indies) and no excess to be borne by the member.

2. Posthumous Defence
A member's estate and reputation are protected. If proceedings are issued against a member's estate for a professional act or omission that occurred during his or her MPS membership, we can meet the cost of defending the case.

3. Professional Tribunals and the Law Courts
MPS provides advice and assistance, with representation when necessary, at disciplinary hearings, medical council proceedings, boards of inquiry, inquests, fatal accident inquiries and manslaughter trials in the criminal courts.

4. Law and Ethics
MPS provides advice on issues arising from professional practice, including matters of law and ethics. For example, advice is available on legal and ethical aspects of consent and confidentiality, writing medico-legal reports and appearing in court. We can also help to resolve specific ethical and medico-legal dilemmas as they arise in members' everyday practice.

5. Professional Reputation
MPS can advice and assist with issues affecting a member's professional character or interests - for example, where a hospital or employer challenges the professional competence of a doctor.

6. Professional Principle
MPS may initiate or defend proceedings concerning questions of professional principle affecting the general membership, pursuing a case to the higher courts on a point of law if necessary.

7. Lobbying
MPS monitors the development of professional and national policy with medico-legal implications, for example in the realms of training, accreditation or the setting of medical council guidelines. The workings of the legal system also warrant critical appraisal and MPS is engaged in seeking ways of improving the law's operation in the area of medical litigation. To this end, MPS is active on review bodies, in lobbying for change and making representations to decision-making bodies.

8. Education and Risk Management
MPS provides educational material on good practice and minimising the risk of medical mishaps. MPS uses a variety of media to disseminate information and guidance - the internet, print, talks and lectures.

9. Arbitration
MPS can assist with arbitration proceedings to settle disputes.

Discretion
The benefits of membership are discretionary under the terms of the Memorandum and Articles of Association, giving us a latitude that is not to be found in commercial insurer's narrowly based contracts. It is this very breadth and flexibility that has nurtured the growth of the Society.

The above list outlines the most common areas in which we assist, but we may also take on problems stemming from medical practice that don't seem to fit any of these categories.

Financial Resources
The MPS as wide-ranging discretion in the type of help it can provide, and as new needs emerge, so we expand the scope of our services.

Of equal importance is having the resources to provide whatever assistance is needed. A sound financial base is the cornerstone of the MPS ability to protect its members.

Medico-Legal Advice and Support
All our medico-legel advisers have special legal skills or qualifications - as well as the full backing of a team of high-calibre lawyers. We have our own in-house specialists and a network of long-established international laaw firms, renowned for their expertise in medical law.

Our pledge is to provide not only the best advice, but the best service and support in every case we take on.

Backing for Members in over Fifty Countries
With more than half our membership living and working outside the UK, the MPS is a truly international organisation. We are particularly well established in South Africa, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore, New Zealand, Eire and the West Indies. We do not, however, represent members in the USA or Canada.

First in Professional Protection
The MPS has successfully anticipated members' needs throughout the 20th century.

We were the first medical protection body to insure ourselves for paying awards of damages against members, the first to offer unlimited indemnity and the first to indemnify members practising outside the UK.

We are ever vigilant in safeguarding members' interests as comprehensively and economically as possible.

The MPS is leading the way forward and setting the highest standards.

More about Professional Protection
1. Occurrence-based Indemnity
It is unusual for formal accusations of medical negligence to be made soon after the event. Most claims of negligence arise several years later and can sometimes take decades to emerge. Most categories of MPS membership offer indemnity on an 'occurrence basis' - that is, a member can seek assistance for a negligence claim at any time as long as he or she was a member paying the appropriate subscription at the time of the incident.

Most alternative, claims-made, policies provided by commercial insurers provide cover only if the policy holder was paying premiums at the time of the incident and when the claim of negligence was made.

2. State Indemnity Schemes
Many doctors - in particular junior hospital doctors - are unaware that state indemnity schemes are not all-embracing. They tend to be limited to the financial consequences of negligence claims. So if faced with a criminal charge arising from clinical practice - manslaughter or indecent assault, for example - a doctor relying solely on state indemnity would find him or herself unprotected. Similarly, assistance with meeting medical council's or employer's disciplinary charges is unlikely to be offered.

Membership of the MPS provides access to support in forums as diverse as hospital disciplinary inquiries and the criminal courts and is also a source of everyday guidance and counsel when medico-legal and ethical quandries arise.

3. Categories of Membership
The concept of mutuality - colleagues pooling their resources and spreading the risks within a non-profit-making framework - is the cornerstone of the Society's philosophy and underlies our subscription policy. Nevertheless, there are some areas of practice that incur much higher risks of litigation and greater sums in compensation payments than do others. In the interests of fairness to all our members, and reflecting their wishes, when setting subscription rates we take into account the risk that each specialty represents. Practitioners in high-risk specialties thus tend to contribute more but the subscription rates retain an element of mutuality.

Members with particularly low incomes may be eligible for a special concessionary subscription rate and those who are retired or no longer practising can apply for free membership. This also applies for members who wil not be practising for an extended period (apart from holidays) - e.g. maternity leave or approved long-term study leave. Members who have paid 40 annual subscriptions are also eligible for free membership.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON THE ABOVE, KINDLY CONTACT US BY

MMA
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MPS
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• MPS Website

PANEL OF SOLICITORS

KL Branch
Shearn Delamore & Company
Advocates & Solicitors
Tingkat 7, Wisma Hamzah-Kwong Hing
No 1, Leboh Ampang, 50100 Kuala Lumpur
Tel No : 03-2070 0644
Fax No : 03-2078 2376/2078 5625
Email : \n shearn@po.jaring.my

Contact Person :

1. Ms Karen Kimkana
   Tel : 03-2076 2907
   Fax : 03-2034 2763
   Email : \n k.kimkana@shearndelamore.com
   
   
2. Ms Wong Gen Qing
   Tel : 03-2076 2896
   Fax : 03-2034 2763
   Email : \n genwong@shearndelamore.com
   
   
3. Mr Dhinesh Bhaskaran
   Tel : 03-2076 2810
   Fax : 03-2034 2763
   Email : \n dhinesh@shearndelamore.com
   
   
4. Mr Sagadevan Thangavelu
   Tel : 03-2076 2827
   Fax : 03-2070 6201
   Email : \n sagadevan@shearndelamore.com
   
   
5. Mr Muralee Nair
   Tel : 03-2076 2854
   Fax : 03-2070 6201
   Email : \n muralee@shearndelamore.com
   
   
6. Mr Robert Lazar
   Tel : 03-2076 2850
   Fax : 03-2034 2763
   Email : \n rlazar@shearndelamore.com

   
   Penang Branch

7. Mr J A Yeoh
   Tel : 04-226 7062
   Fax : 03-227 5166
   Email : \n yeoh@shearnpg.com

   Raja, Darryl & Loh
   18th Floor, Wisma Sime Darby
   Jalan Raja Laut
   50350 Kuala Lumpur
   Tel No : 03-2694 9999 (during office hours)
   Tel No : 03-2698 4999 (after office hours)
   Fax No : 03-2698 4759/2693 8028

   Contact Partners :
   Mr Darryl S C Goon &
   Ms Jennifer N F Cheong

   
   TO APPLY, KINDLY DOWNLOAD THE MPS MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION FORM BELOW

• MPS APPLICATION FORM
• REVISED SUBSCRIPTION RATES FOR MALAYSIAN SPECIALTIES
  1ST FEBRUARY 2007 TO 31ST JANUARY 2008


TO RENEW, KINDLY DOWNLOAD THE MPS RENEWAL FORM BELOW

• MPS RENEWAL FORM 2007

  
  TO APPLY FOR THE MEDICAL STUDENT MEMBER OF THE MEDICAL PROTECTION SOCIETY, KINDLY DOWNLOAD THE APPLICATION FORM BELOW

• MEDICAL STUDENT MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION

MMA & MPS MEMBERSHIP PACKAGE FOR JUST RM200

NEW!
To provide the best standards of clinical care, a medical practitioner must display dedication, good communication skills and an awareness of clinical risk management as well as up-to-date clinical skills and knowledge. But no matter how skilled we are, we would never eliminate all risks. That is why more and more doctors including those working within the public sector are recognizing the value of professional indemnity protection.

The MMA is the national professional organization for doctors and we have been working in close partnership with the Medical Protection Society (MPS) for more than 40 years.

Together, we have put together a very special discounted combined membership package. Membership of MPS provides access to help with legal problems related to your medical practice, including indemnity for clinical negligence claims. In addition, you will receive regular updates on risk management and preventive measures.

Access to professional indemnity will be particularly useful as the government is now offering some limited private practice in government hospitals and have legalised locum.

Please ensure that you get the certification on the reverse side of the MMA application form, signed by any staff member at the MMC or University/Medical School to verify your qualifications.

You may contact the MMA MEMBERSHIP DEPT. at 03-40431375 for further details or clarifications.

APPLICATION FORMS AND OTHER DETAILS ON THE MMA & MPS MEMBERSHIP PACKAGE ARE AVAILABLE FOR DOWNLOADING BELOW.

CLICK HERE