Members who retire, take a career break or who otherwise stop practising medicine voluntarily - either temporarily or permanently (excluding holidays), can request to retain their Medical Protection membership in the retired/deferred category.

As a retired or deferred member with occurrence-based protection, you pay no subscription and can still apply for assistance with any medicolegal problems arising from a “Good Samaritan act”.

However, if you decide to leave Medical Protection membership, then you will not be entitled to any assistance in relation to a Good Samaritan act if the incident occurs after your membership has ended. You must also inform us before you resume practice, so that we can ensure you are placed in the correct category of membership.

Members with claims-made protection should contact us to find out how a break will affect their membership.

We actively encourage members to contact us for advice to provide peace of mind and to help prevent a concern or problem escalating.

MPS does not use the number of requests for advice as part of its risk assessment of a member. This includes determining their membership subscription.

In exceptional cases, where a request for advice involves facts or circumstances of a highly unusual or unique nature it might trigger a general review of an individual’s risk profile. However, we stress that this would be very unusual.

So, if you want to discuss a dento-legal issue or need advice on how to prevent a concern or problem escalating, please do let us know - we are only a phone call away.

As is the case with any new patient you take on, so long as you are in the correct grade of membership to reflect the scope of your practice (eg if you are a general practitioner treating patients with implants, or continuing orthodontic treatment, then you are in the appropriate SP grade), you can request help or assistance from Dental Protection if needed. 

When you take over the care of a patient, you are not taking over liability for past treatment, however you are responsible for all treatment going forward. If the patient was mid-way through a course of treatment with a previous dentist - for example, fitting crowns or dentures that had already been constructed - then you would need to be sure that the preparations on the teeth or dentures was of an appropriate standard before you continued with the treatment. If you have any concerns with the existing preparation, then you should amend or remake as needed. If you proceed with the existing treatment, you are accepting that it is of an appropriate standard.  Similarly, if you do not agree with the pre-existing treatment plan, you will need to amend it and proceed as you see fit, as it will be your responsibility from that point forward.