GPs have been offered new relief from the rising costs of indemnity – amid warnings of growing problems.

A scheme that indemnified GPs taking on out of hours shifts over the winter is to be extended past the Easter Bank Holiday, NHS England said.

Practices will also be receiving the first tranche of payments from a £30 million scheme, it said.

But the Medical Defence Union said government decisions could also cause huge increases in court payments – pushing up indemnity costs further.

NHS England director of primary care Dr Arvind Madan said: “The General Practice Forward View committed to help address the indemnity problem and today’s announcement is the latest step in the work NHS England has been doing with the Department of Health and the medical defence organisations.

“We know the rising costs of indemnity are proving a real obstacle for GPs and this funding is an example of our determination to help tackle the issue.”

But Dr Matthew Lee, from the MDU, warned that “billions” could be added to the cost of claims because the Lord Chancellor has agreed to use a negative discount rate. This means that awards intended to cover future costs pay more for every year of expected life – rather than less as in the past.

Dr Lee said: “GPs are seeing unsustainable increases in the costs of their indemnity because clinical negligence inflation – the number and value of claims – has been running at over 10% for several years.

“What was already a significant problem has, at a stroke, been made substantially worse for GPs bearing rising indemnity costs because of the lowering of the discount rate.”

He added: “This is a catastrophic situation which could threaten GPs’ ability to continue to practise.”