To whom it may concern

NHS England and NHS Improvement Skipton House| 80 Road London SE1 6LH

1 April 2020

COVID-19: Indemnity provisions for independent sector employees working in the NHS and NHS employees working in independent sector facilities during the COVID-19 incident response

NHS England and NHS Improvement, in collaboration with the Independent Healthcare Providers Network (IHPN), have reached a national agreement with independent sector (IS) healthcare providers to secure virtually all available inpatient capacity* and supporting resources in every area in England to form part of our response to COVID-19. This covers all of the facilities with inpatient and/or day case beds and the existing staff working for those providers.

The arrangements that NHS England and NHS Improvement has entered into with the operators of independent sector hospitals across England to assist with the Covid-19 crisis became effective from 23 March 2020 and will continue for at least 14 weeks. Under the Heads of Terms already agreed, everyone involved in the delivery of NHS services under those arrangements, whether they are employed by one of the hospital operators or by an NHS Trust or Foundation Trust, is covered by:  indemnity arrangements in respect of clinical negligence under schemes operated by NHS Resolution; and  insurance arranged by the hospital operator, and/or indemnity arrangements under schemes operated by NHS Resolution, in respect of employer’s liability.

The further detail of how these arrangements will operate will be written into the nationally agreed final terms of the contracts between NHS England and NHS Improvement and the independent sector providers which are party to the agreement.

Separate contractual arrangements between NHS providers and independent sector providers in relation to the provision of services and indemnity are unnecessary.

Yours sincerely

Neil Permain

Director of NHS Operations and Delivery Leading the COVID-19 Independent Sector Provider Contracts and Coordination Team NHS England and Improvement

*The full list of contracted companies is available from the IS Coordination Team at: [email protected]

NHS England and NHS Improvement