The College of Optometrists

I am an employed part-time optometrist and I have been offered in addition occasional work on a self employed basis in a different town. How should I go about getting professional indemnity insurance for these occasional days, or is it reasonable to expect the practice owner to provide this?

Presumably you're not currently an AOP member, and at the moment are relying on indemnity cover provided by your employers?

Whether it's reasonable or not to expect the practice owner to provide it, I wouldn't want to rely on indemnity provided by any employer, unless it was by them paying your AOP fees or similar! They may well have an indemnity policy that ostensibly covers you when working in the practice, but it's not hard to imagine a situation where the interests of the practice, and your own interests as the optometrist are in conflict. For that reason, I'd always have my own insurance, regardless of what an employer claims to provide.

AOP are the obvious choice, though probably not the cheapest. They do reduced rates for part time workers (less than 100 days per year I think) but I don't think they would regard your situation as part time, as they would probably still consider that you were covered by them when working in your "employed" position.