Dental Indemnity for Locums: What You Actually Need

Indemnity is the thing every locum knows they need and few fully understand. Getting it wrong does not show up until a claim lands years later. Here is what matters when you work freelance.

Why locums are a special case

As an employed associate, some of your risk sits with the practice. As a locum, you are typically self-employed and personally responsible for your own indemnity for the clinical work you perform. No practice manager is quietly covering you. The cover has to be yours, and it has to match what you actually do.

Occurrence vs claims-made — know which you have

This is the detail that catches people out:

• Occurrence-based cover responds to incidents that happened while you were a member, even if the claim arrives after you have moved on.
• Claims-made cover responds only to claims made while the policy is active — which is why leaving or switching can require "run-off" cover for past work.

For a peripatetic locum working many short placements, understanding which model you hold — and what happens to old work when you change provider — is essential.

Match cover to your scope

Your indemnity should reflect the procedures, sedation, and settings you actually work in. A locum doing molar endo or implants needs different cover from one doing routine restorative. Under-declaring your scope to save on subscription is a false economy that can void protection when you need it.

Records are your first line of defence

Ask any indemnity organisation what protects a dentist in a complaint and the answer is always the same: contemporaneous records. Clear notes, dated photographs, and documented consent turn a "your word against theirs" complaint into a defensible file. For a locum, this is even more important — you may be recalling a single day at a practice you will never revisit, years later.

Keeping a clean, dated, consent-tracked record of every case you treat — one that stays with you rather than the practice — is the cheapest insurance you will ever hold. DentalCloud exists partly for this reason: a portable, timestamped, consent-logged record of your clinical work that is there if you ever need to account for it.

Before your next placement

• Confirm your cover is active and matches your scope.
• Know whether it is occurrence or claims-made.
• Keep your own contemporaneous records for every case, at every practice.

General information only, not indemnity or legal advice. Speak to your defence organisation or a specialist broker about your specific circumstances.