Offence--compulsory provision of medical indemnity cover
(1) A person (the insurer ) commits an offence if:
(a) the insurer is a medical indemnity insurer; and
(b) the insurer is obliged, under an arrangement of the kind referred to in paragraph 26B(1)(f), to provide medical indemnity cover for a medical practitioner; and
(c) the insurer does not provide medical indemnity cover for the practitioner that satisfies all of the requirements of subsection 26A(4); and
(d) in a case where a termination date has been set for the purposes of subsection 34ZB(3) of the Medical Indemnity Act 2002 --the insurer's failure to provide that medical indemnity cover occurs before that date.
Penalty: Imprisonment for 12 months.
(2) The medical indemnity cover referred to in subsection (1):
(a) may be medical indemnity cover provided to the practitioner or to someone else; and
(b) need not be medical indemnity cover provided while the practitioner was an eligible practitioner.
Practitioner etc. need not apply for medical indemnity cover
(3) The obligation under subsection (1) to provide medical indemnity cover applies whether or not the practitioner, or any other person, has applied to the insurer for the medical indemnity cover.
Effect of subsection (1)
(4) Subsection (1) has effect subject to section 116 of the Insurance Act 1973 .
Note: This means that an insurer does not have to provide medical indemnity cover under subsection (1) once the winding up of the insurer has started.