Medical Defence Union

The Medical Defence Union is the largest medical defence union in the United Kingdom, and is one of three major medical defence organisations (MDOs) in the country.

The MDU was established in 1885 and was the first of its kind in the world. Members are either doctors, dentists or other healthcare professionals and the MDU provides legal support should their clinical competence be called into question. It had used to have members outside of the United Kingdom, including in Singapore and Hong Kong, but withdrew from these commitments in the late-1990s.

Competitors of the MDU include the Medical Protection Society, or MPS, and the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland, or MDDUS.