What is: Queensland Government Insurance Fund (QGIF)

What is QGIF?

QGIF is the statutory body which supplies nearly all forms of insurance for the Queensland Government. It is mandatory that Queensland Government agencies such as Metro North Health hold a QGIF insurance policy. The types of insurance offered include:

• Property: insurance for loss and damage to property.
• General liability: insurance to cover claims made by third parties for personal injury, financial loss or property damage.
• Professional indemnity: insurance for third party financial loss arising from a breach of professional duty.
• Medical indemnity: insurance for Queensland Health (the Department of Health and Hospital and Health Services) which covers third party liability claims arising from medical and health services.
• Personal accident and illness: insurance to cover personal injury to volunteers, board members and committee members.

Examples include:

• An insured building is destroyed by a fire or suffers damage due to a storm
• Increased costs such as paying rent for temporary premises after damage to the building e.g. a school fire
• A lawsuit by a visitor who claims they slipped and fell due to the poor condition of the floor
• A lawsuit by a patient who says they received negligent medical treatment by hospital staff
• A claim by an employee that they have developed a medical condition because they were discriminated against at work
• A claim by a former employee alleging unfair dismissal
• Theft of money or property by an employee
• Losses associated with a cyber incident, for example, compensation, legal costs, asset replacement, and investigation costs

Not all types of insurance are provided by QGIF. The following are not provided by QGIF:

• Motor vehicle insurance
• Travel insurance
• Workers’ compensation
• Compulsory Third Party (CTP) insurance

Why is this important and what’s my role in this?

An accepted QGIF insurance claim can protect you, your work or Metro North Health from unexpected loss, payments, or paying compensation.

If QGIF accepts a claim they will pay all reasonable legal costs and expenses (other than in-house legal costs and expenses) incurred in the settlement or defence of claims.

Metro North Health pays an excess fee to QGIF for each matter that is claimed against the policy. The deductable is usually much less than the cost of managing a claim, which is why almost all claims are lodged with QGIF.

When loss or settlement occurs, the costs are normally paid from your cost centre. If QGIF accepts your claim this will significantly reduce the impact of any loss on your cost centre.

Thanks to the Public Sector Act 2022 (Qld) and Queensland Health’s indemnity policies, staff usually cannot be sued for things done in the course of their employment. When you contact Metro North Legal Services they will discuss the few exceptions with you. This is why almost all legal claims related to things done by staff are managed by legal firms engaged by QGIF to defend claims on Metro North Health’s behalf.

What do I need to do?

Contact Metro North Legal Services (LegalMetroNorth@health.qld.gov.au or Phone: 3647 9546) as soon as you are aware of a possible claim against you, your work, your staff, work unit or Metro North Health. Examples include:

• Any threatened or actual legal action
• Any demand for compensation
• Any allegation of “liability” or legal responsibility for an action that may lead to any of the above

Useful Links

• QGIF
• Queensland Health HR Policy I2. Indemnity for Queensland Health medical practitioners
• Employee Indemnity Page
• Queensland Government indemnity guideline
• Queensland Health HR Policy I4. Compensation for loss of or damage to private property and personal effects of employees and for damage to visitor’s vehicles