Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential need to provide legal protection to doctors during the covid-19 outbreak in the event that doctors are required to make decisions about whether to withhold or withdraw critical care support from one patient in order to sustain the life of another.

The Government’s focus throughout this period has been to support the National Health Service and NHS staff to respond effectively to the pandemic.

During the outbreak, existing indemnity arrangements will continue to cover clinical negligence liabilities arising from the vast majority of NHS services. In the case of medical staff working in NHS trusts, indemnity cover will be provided by the Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST). To ensure that indemnity is not a barrier for healthcare staff working as part of the NHS response to COVID-19, we have ensured that they will be covered under the indemnity provision of the Coronavirus Act 2020 in the unlikely event that they are involved in the novel delivery of NHS services that fall outside the scope of CNST.