Insurance for Pharmacy and Pharmacists

Why do Pharmacies and Pharmacists need insurance?

Whether you’re a pharmacy owner or going solo as a contracting pharmacist, your job involves a great deal of responsibility when talking to customers about managing their health and wellbeing.

That’s why it is important to ensure you have the right insurances in place to protect your business when things take an unexpected turn for the worst.

Our insurance options for pharmacies can provide protection for you, your employees and your business, with different types of cover available to suit your particular needs. You can obtain instant quotes from the multiple leading insurers on our platform.

Liability Insurances for pharmacists

Professional Indemnity insurance* provides cover for you as a pharmacist for civil claims and disciplinary actions brought against you due to your professional activities.

It provides cover against losses claimed by a third party due to alleged or actual negligence or errors in your professional pharmacy services or advice.  Your Professional Indemnity insurance will cover the associated compensation payable to a third party together with your defence costs (which can include legal costs, expert fees). In addition, your policy will cover legal representation costs associated with disciplinary investigations and proceedings and coronial enquiries associated with your professional practice.

An example of the type of risks you may be faced with as a Pharmacy include claims resulting from dispensing errors, breaches of privacy and investigations/actions brought by AHPRA and other regulatory bodies.

Public Liability insurance* is another type of cover likely to be relevant for pharmacy owners. It is designed to provide protection for you and your pharmacy business in the event a customer, supplier or a member of the public are injured or sustain property damage as a result of your negligent business activities. For example, a customer slipping over your recently mopped floors or tripping over a poorly placed box of medications, resulting in injury.

Public Liability Insurance*

Do you need Public Liability insurance? The short answer is probably yes. Chances are you’ll have regular contact with clients, contractors and the general public. Public Liability insurance is designed to provide protection for you and your business in the event a customer, supplier or a member of the public is injured or sustains property damage as a result of your negligent business activities.

Other Insurances for pharmacies

Whilst Professional Indemnity and Public Liability insurance provides cover for legal liabilities arising from your practice as a pharmacist and your business activities there are other elements of your business that may require different types of insurance cover.

Business insurance* offers a number of coverage options including:

• Building: provides protection for your pharmacy building if it was damaged as a result of a fire, storm, malicious activity or another defined event listed in the policy.
• Contents: insures the contents or stock of your pharmacy if they were damaged in a fire, storm or due to malicious damage or some other defined event listed in the policy, this policy provides up to $2 million in cover.

Additional Benefit for Prescription Data: cover for loss resulting from loss or damage to prescriptions or any information required by relevant statutory authorities to remunerate you under existing legislation . The benefit will pay the redeemable value of the prescriptions or other information that is lost or damaged. It will also cover the reasonable costs for reproducing or rewriting the prescription information that is lost, destroyed or damaged.

Business Interruption: cover for financial loss as a result of an interruption to your business caused by an insured event.

• Money: covers business money that is lost or stolen from your premises or in transit
• Glass: cover for breakage of internal and external glass and signage you own or for which you are legally responsible, at the insured premises.
• Employee Dishonesty:  covers for losses incurred through fraudulent or dishonest acts by your employees.
• Machinery Breakdown: covers the cost of repairing or replacing insured machinery following a breakdown, including electronic or mechanical machinery and equipment, such as refrigerators and air conditioners. It will generally include a certain amount of stock loss as a result of the breakdown. This is important to consider, especially if your pharmacy relies on certain products and stock being refrigerated like medication, probiotics etc.
• Theft: this option covers you for loss or damage to contents or stock through theft or attempted theft at your premises, following violent or forced entry.
  There is an additional benefit which provides a level of cover for theft (without forcible and violent entry) of business contents from or immediately outside the pharmacy premises during business hours.