University Travel Insurance Guidance – June 2009

University Travel Insurance Guidance – June 2009

When to use the insurers emergency helpline re illness

When you, or a member of a party you are responsible for, is taken ill, and cannot continue with the business trip as planned, intends to claim against the University’s travel insurance policy, and requires one of the following:

• Hospitalisation
• Accompanied repatriation to the UK under medical supervision/care
• Accompanied repatriation to the UK, where the repatriation does not require medical supervision or care en route, but where accompaniment is recommended by medical advice, and the party accompanying the employee’s repatriation will incur additional unforeseen costs that are intended to be claimed for against the University’s travel insurance policy.

When NOT to use the insurer's emergency helpline:

When you or a member of a party you are responsible for:

• Requires medical attention whilst travelling, but can continue with the business trip as planned (and any intention to make a claim is notified to LSBU Corporate Procurement at the earliest opportunity either whilst travelling, or immediately upon return to the UK)

• Needs information on the university’s insurers policy cover (the emergency helpline does not have access to university policy information) *

* Before you travel contact a member of the Corporate Procurement Unit and ask for a copy of the current:

• Travel insurance emergency contacts document
• Travel policy key facts document

Whilst travelling, contact details for the Corporate Procurement team are:

http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/about/suppliers/supplierContact.shtml

Travel Risk Assessments

Business travellers should always carry out a risk assessment before any trip, be familiar with university insurance arrangements, and travel with a copy of the university’s insurance cover summary, and emergency contact details, referred to above.

For further advice on risk assessment visit Health & Safety Policy and Guidance on Overseas Travel and Field Trips at:

http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/safety/guidancenotes/Overseas%20Travel%20P&GN%20Dec%2008.doc

http://www.lsbu.ac.uk/safety/studentmatters/studentmatters.shtml

Requests for additional information re university travel insurance arrangements should be directed through LSBU Corporate Procurement in the first instance.

General advice from the university’s insurer on the extent to which the university’s travel insurance policy can be relied upon in remote destinations and those destinations perceived to have an increased risk of danger…..

The advice is to check with the Foreign Office (FO) for guidance.

Where FO advice is "Do Not Go" - our current policy would not cover travel to that destination

Where FO advice is "All But Essential" - our insurer would require a briefing as to the justification for travel before confirming whether extending cover on the existing policy for that travel is agreed.

These are both matters to be dealt with within a pre-travel risk assessment.

Our insurer also concurs with the opinion expressed below that no level of insurance can guarantee successful repatriation where there is no infrastructure in place at the destination to facilitate this in an emergency.

The obligation for risk assessment remains on the business traveller and the consideration that in the extreme the best form of insurance is not to take the risk in the first place (i.e. do not travel)

In general, the university insurance policy does cover staff and students whilst travelling on university business/education.

The insurer generally does not advise where and when the insured should travel in the course of its business. The insurer would expect the business traveller and senior responsible officer for the group travelling to do a risk assessment of the trip abroad.

An unqualified interpretation of this would be that the insurer would endeavour to support the business traveller in good faith to the extent it is contracted to under the insurance policy, but the capacity to facilitate and fund emergency support would be significantly affected by the local conditions and infrastructure at the foreign destination should an emergency occur.

There is an obligation on the business traveller to asses the local conditions and infrastructure at the foreign destination

Adrian Moody

Corporate Procurement Manager

London South Bank University

0207 815 6805