The Patient Rights (Treatment Time Guarantee) (Scotland) Regulations 2012

Calculation of waiting time – periods of time not to be counted

4.—(1) The following periods of time do not count towards the calculation of waiting time—

(a) periods of time when the patient is unavailable for the agreed treatment for a known period—

(i) because a registered medical practitioner has advised that the patient has another medical condition which prevents the agreed treatment from proceeding for that period of time; or

(ii) because the patient has advised the Health Board that he or she is unavailable for treatment for that period of time;

(b) periods of time when the treatment time guarantee is suspended in accordance with a direction or an order made under section 12(2) or (4) of the Patient Rights (Scotland) Act 2011.

(2) Without prejudice to paragraph (1), the specified period in paragraph (3) does not count towards the calculation of waiting time when all of the following circumstances apply—

(a) an agreed treatment was due to be delivered in the commissioning Health Board area through a scheduled visiting practitioner service (as agreed between an eligible patient and the commissioning Health Board);

(b) the visiting practitioner has been unable to deliver the agreed treatment in the commissioning Health Board area due to severe weather conditions which prevented the practitioner from being able to travel to the commissioning Health Board area;

(c) the commissioning Health Board has accordingly offered the patient another appointment for the agreed treatment within the treatment time guarantee, but outwith the commissioning Health Board area; and

(d) the patient has decided, rather than to attend an appointment for the agreed treatment outwith the commissioning Health Board area, to wait until the next scheduled visiting practitioner service.

(3) The specified period is the period from the date when the commissioning Health Board is made aware of the patient’s decision under paragraph (2)(d), until the date of the next scheduled visiting practitioner service.

(4) In this regulation, “visiting practitioner service” means a service whereby a registered medical practitioner (a “practitioner”), who is employed by a Health Board, is scheduled to travel periodically to another Health Board (“the commissioning Health Board”) area in order to see and treat patients in the commissioning Health Board area.