The National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) Regulations 2004

Temporary arrangements for transfer of obligations and liabilities in relation to certain out of hours services

1.—(1) In this Schedule—

“accredited service provider” has the meaning given to it by regulation 2 of the Out of Hours Regulations;

“Out of Hours Regulations” means the National Health Service (Out of Hours Medical Services) and National Health Service (General Medical Services) Amendment Regulations 2002(1);

“out of hours arrangement” means an arrangement under sub-paragraph (2); and

“transferee doctor” means a person referred to in sub-paragraph (5)(b) who has undertaken to carry out the obligations of a contractor during all or part of the out of hours period in accordance with an out of hours arrangement referred to in sub-paragraph (2).

(2) Subject to the provisions of this Schedule, where a contractor is required to provide out of hours services pursuant to regulation 30 or 31, it may, with the approval of the Primary Care Trust, make an arrangement with one of the persons specified in sub-paragraph (5) as if regulations 1 to 11 of the Out of Hours Regulations, subject to the modifications specified in sub-paragraph (6), were still in force.

(3) Any arrangement made pursuant to sub-paragraph (2) shall cease to have effect on 1st January 2005.

(4) An arrangement made in accordance with sub-paragraph (2) shall, for so long as it continues, or is not suspended under paragraph 7(1), relieve the contractor of—

(a) its obligations to provide out of hours services pursuant to regulation 30 or 31; and

(b) all liabilities under the contract in respect of those services.

(5) The persons referred to in sub-paragraph (2) are—

(a) an accredited service provider; or

(b) a person who holds a general medical services contract with the Primary Care Trust which includes the provision of out of hours services.

(6) The modifications referred to in sub-paragraph (2) are—

(a) as if out of hours period had the meaning given in regulation 2 of these Regulations;

(b) as if the requirements relating to an assessing authority in regulation 4(5) to (8) did not apply in cases where, in the opinion of the accrediting authority, it was appropriate and safe to dispense with them;

(c) as if the reference to a medical practitioner in regulation 11(2)(c) was a reference to a contractor;

(d) as if the reference to section 44 in regulation 11(2)(d) was to section 45A of the Act(2); and

(e) as if the reference to a medical list or supplementary list in paragraph 7 of the Schedule was to a medical performers list and the words “or he is named in an agreement under section 2 of the 1997 Act as a performer of personal medical services” were omitted.

(7) A contractor may make more than one out of hours arrangement and may do so (for example) with different transferee doctors or accredited service providers and in respect of different patients, different times and different parts of its practice area.

(8) A contractor may retain responsibility for, or make separate out of hours arrangements in respect of, the provision to any patients of maternity medical services during the out of hours period which the contractor is required to provide pursuant to regulation 30 or 31 and any separate out of hours arrangements it makes may encompass all or any part of the maternity medical services it provides.

(9) Nothing in this paragraph prevents a contractor from retaining or resuming its obligations in relation to named patients.

(1)

S.I. 2002/2548 as amended by S.I. 2003/26.

(2)

Section 45A was inserted into the Act by paragraph 23 of Schedule 11 to the 2003 Act.