The Health and Personal Social Services (General Medical Services Contracts) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004

Out of hours services

30.—(1) Subject to paragraph 10 of Schedule 5, a contract under which services are to be provided before 1st January 2005 (whether or not such services will be provided after that date) must provide for the services specified in paragraph (2) to be provided throughout the out of hours period unless –

(a) the Board has accepted in writing, prior to the signing of the contract, a written request from the contractor that the contract should not require the contractor to make such provision;

(b) the contract is, at the date on which it is signed, with –

(i) a medical practitioner who, on or before 31st March 2004, made an arrangement to transfer his obligations under the terms of service to another medical practitioner under paragraph 20(2) of Schedule 2 to the General Medical Services Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997(1),

(ii) a partnership in which all of the partners who are general medical practitioners have made arrangements on or before 31st March 2004 to transfer their obligations under the terms of service to other medical practitioners under that paragraph, or

(iii) a company in which all of the general medical practitioners who own shares in that company have on or before 31st March 2004 made arrangements to transfer their obligations under the terms of service to other medical practitioners under that paragraph ;

(c) the contractor has opted out in accordance with paragraph 4 or 5 of Schedule 2; or

(d) the contract has been otherwise varied to exclude a requirement to make such provision.

(2) The services referred to in paragraph (1) are –

(a) the services which must be provided in core hours under regulation 15; and

(b) such additional services as are included in the contract pursuant to regulation 29.

(1)

S.R. 1997 No. 380