The Primary Care Trusts (Consultation on Establishment, Dissolution and Transfer of Staff) Regulations 1999

Consultation on amendment of a PCT order or dissolution

3.—(1) Subject to paragraph (3), before the Secretary of State may make an order under section 16A(2) (PCT orders), which has the effect of–

(a) removing, wholly or partly, any restriction or prohibition in a PCT order which prevents a Primary Care Trust from providing services directly to patients in the exercise of functions conferred on it under section 17A(1) of the Act (Health Authorities' directions: distribution of functions)(1);

(b) changing the area of a Primary Care Trust, unless it appears to the Secretary of State that the change is not sufficiently significant to require consultation; or

(c) dissolving a Primary Care Trust,

the Health Authority in whose area the trust is established must consult the persons to which paragraph (4) applies.

(2) Before the Secretary of State may make an order under section 16A(2), other than an order establishing a Primary Care Trust or an order in the circumstances to which paragraph (1) applies, the Health Authority must consult the Primary Care Trust in respect of which the order is to be made.

(3) If it appears to the Secretary of State necessary to dissolve a Primary Care Trust as a matter of urgency, the consultation requirements imposed by paragraph (1) shall not apply.

(4) The persons referred to in paragraph (1) are–

(a) the Community Health Council within whose area falls, wholly or partly, the area of the Primary Care Trust;

(b) any local authority whose area falls wholly or partly within the area of the Primary Care Trust;

(c) any NHS trust which provides community health services to the persons for whom the Primary Care Trust is responsible, except where the level of services is, in the opinion of the Health Authority, not significant;

(d) the Local Medical Committee for the area of the Health Authority, and such other bodies, if any, as appear to the Health Authority to be appropriate to represent those health care professionals–

(i) providing, or assisting the provision of, Part II services or community health services; or

(ii) performing, or assisting the performance of, services in connection with a pilot scheme under the 1997 Act,

for the benefit of persons for whom the Primary Care Trust is responsible;

(e) such voluntary organisations as appear to the Health Authority to be appropriate to represent–

(i) the interests of persons who are provided with services under the 1977 Act and for whom the Primary Care Trust is responsible; or

(ii) the interests of private carers who provide care to such persons;

(f) such other persons as the Health Authority consider appropriate.

(5) For the purposes of this regulation, the persons for whom a Primary Care Trust is responsible are–

(a) the practice patients of the medical practitioners providing general medical services under the Act, or performing personal medical services in connection with a pilot scheme under the 1997 Act, in respect of whom the trust is the relevant Primary Care Trust;

(b) those usually resident in the area for which the trust is established and who are not practice patients of any medical practitioner providing general medical services under the Act or performing personal medical services in connection with a pilot scheme under the 1997 Act.

(1)

Section 17A is inserted by the 1999 Act, section 12.