Multinational insurance company Howden has launched new insurance products for UK community pharmacies faced with a “limited” choice of insurers, it announced last week (June 25).

The insurer, which operates in 50 countries and has over 22,000 clients in its “health and care practice”, said that there were “only a small number of providers” that serve the UK’s community pharmacies “despite the size and importance of the sector”.

Howden will offer “flexible” professional indemnity, medical malpractice, public liability and commercial shop insurance to UK pharmacies – available as one combined policy or separately - it announced.

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It said that the different options it offers were “designed” by its divisional director Ian Smith, who has more than a decade of experience in pharmacy insurance broking services.

Smith added that the new insurance options were a “compelling proposition to make pharmacists’ lives a bit easier”. 

NPAI expands to GPs

Meanwhile, the National Pharmacy Association Insurance’s (NPA Insurance) subsidiary Peach Pi has announced the launch of a scheme to insure GP surgeries “and other healthcare professionals”.

Peach Pi chief executive Russell White yesterday (July 3) told C+D that the insurer had been established to share NPA Insurance’s experience “with the wider healthcare sector”.

White said he is “delighted” that Peach Pi is “proving to be a popular and growing” part of the NPA Insurance business.

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It now covers “professionals in healthcare, wellness and the lifestyle sectors”, as well as some other small to medium-sized enterprises in the UK, he added.

“It’s fabulous that any return we make can be channelled directly into supporting frontline primary healthcare through the NPA’s support for the community pharmacy network,” White told C+D.

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While NPA Insurance’s most recent annual report showed it had posted a loss of £1.9 million before tax in 2023 - down from its £2.6m loss in 2022 - due to “higher claims”, it said that Peach Pi had shown “sustained growth”.

NPA Insurance’s strategic report added that Peach Pi, launched in the 2020/21 financial year, had “begun to bear fruit commercially”.

It revealed that Peach Pi had gross written premiums of £11.8m in 2023, up from £8.8m in 2022, in its annual report for 2023 published on Companies House in May.