Health Services and Public Health Act 1968

19 General ophthalmic services in Scotland

(1) The services to be provided in accordance with the arrangements mentioned in section 42 of the 1947 Act shall, instead of being referred to in that Act as supplementary ophthalmic services, be so referred to as general ophthalmic services, and, accordingly, for the words "supplementary ophthalmic services" in that Act (wherever they occur) and in section 1(4) of the [1951 c. 31.] National Health Service Act 1951 there shall be substituted the words " general ophthalmic services ".

(2) Subsections (2) and (4) of the said section 42 shall cease to have effect; and the said section shall have effect as if, after subsection (1) thereof, there were inserted the following subsections :—

“(2) Provision shall be made by regulations for the delegation by each Executive Council of such of their functions under this section as may be prescribed to a committee, constituted in the prescribed manner so as to include members appointed by that Council, by medical practitioners having the prescribed qualifications, by ophthalmic opticians and by dispensing opticians, for the areas of that Council and of such other Executive Council or Executive Councils as may be specified in the regulations; and any committee constituted under this subsection shall be known as a Joint Ophthalmic Services Committee.

(2A) Regulations constituting a Joint Ophthalmic Services Committee under subsection (2) above may contain such supplementary and incidental provisions as appear to the Secretary of State to be necessary or expedient, including provision for the payment of the expenses of the Committee by the constituent Councils thereof; for the application, with such modifications as may be prescribed, to the Committee of any provision of this Act relating to ophthalmic services; for any of the matters for which, in relation to an Executive Council, provision is or may be made by or under the supplementary provisions of the Sixth Schedule to this Act; and for the transfer of officers and their compensation by the Secretary of State, and the transfer of property and liabilities”.

(3) Section 43 of the 1947 Act (disqualification of persons providing services under Part IV) shall have effect as if any reference therein to an Executive Council included a reference to a Joint Ophthalmic Services Committee.

(4) Section 44 of the 1947 Act (powers of Secretary of State where services under Part IV are inadequate) shall have effect as if, after paragraph (c) of that section, there were inserted the following:— “or

(d) of persons undertaking to provide general ophthalmic services”;

and as if the word " or ", where occurring immediately before the said paragraph (c), were omitted.

(5) The power to make regulations under the said section 42 shall include power to make regulations providing for the dissolution of any joint committee for ophthalmic services constituted by order under subsection (4) of section 32 of the 1947 Act and (notwithstanding anything in section 73 of that Act, which relates among other things to the revocation of orders) any such regulations may revoke any order made under that subsection and relating to ophthalmic services; and references in any order or regulations made under the National Health Service (Scotland) Acts 1947 to 1967 to a Joint Ophthalmic Services Committee constituted by virtue of the said section 32(4) shall (except in provisions relating to the constitution or dissolution of such a committee) be construed as including references to a Joint Ophthalmic Services Committee constituted by virtue of subsection (2) of the said section 42 as amended by this section.

(6) References in the National Health Service (Scotland) Acts 1947 to 1967, and in any order or regulations made thereunder, to Ophthalmic Services Committees constituted by virtue of subsection (2) of the said section 42 as originally enacted shall be construed as references to Joint Ophthalmic Services Committees constituted by virtue of subsection (2) of the said section 42 as amended by this section.

(7) Section 15 of the 1947 Act (health centres) shall have elect as if in subsection (1) thereof, after paragraph (c), there were inserted the following paragraph:—

“(ca) the provision of general ophthalmic services under Part IV of this Act by medical practitioners having the qualifications prescribed for the purposes of section 42 of this Act, ophthalmic opticians and dispensing opticians and, on such terms and conditions as may be determined by the Secretary of State, the provision by persons of each of the descriptions aforesaid of such (if any) other ophthalmic services as may, in the case of a particular health centre, be so determined in relation to persons of that description

and in section 42(1) of that Act, after the word " testing " and after the word " supply", there shall be inserted the words " whether at a health centre or otherwise ";

.”

(8) This section applies to Scotland only.