The General Medical Services and Personal Medical Services Transitional and Consequential Provisions Order 2004

The National Health Service (General Ophthalmic Services) Regulations 1986

4.—(1) The National Health Service (General Ophthalmic Services) Regulations 1986(1) shall be amended as provided in this paragraph.

(2) In regulation 2(1) (interpretation), for the definition of “lists”, substitute—

““lists” means—

(a)

a list referred to in section 49N(1)(a) to (c) of the Act;

(b)

a list of persons undertaking to provide general medical services prepared in accordance with regulations under section 29 of that Act as the list existed on or before 31st March 2004;

(c)

a list of persons approved by a Primary Care Trust for the purpose of assisting in the provision of general medical services prepared in accordance with regulations under section 43D(1) of that Act as the list existed on or before 31st March 2004; or

(d)

a services list referred to in section 8ZA(1)(a) of the National Health Service (Primary Care) Act 1997 as the list existed on or before 31st March 2004;”.

(3) In Schedule 1, for paragraph 8C (complaints against ophthalmic medical practitioners) substitute—

“(1) Where a contractor who, being an ophthalmic medical practitioner, also performs primary medical services under a GMS contract for any person to whom he provides general ophthalmic services, the complaints procedure established and operated in accordance with the terms of that GMS contract shall apply in relation to any matter reasonably connected with his provision of general ophthalmic services as it applies as respects the provision of services under the GMS contract.

(2) Accordingly, any requirement as to co-operation with investigations of complaints by other bodies imposed on a GMS contractor under the term of its contract which gives effect to paragraph 97 of Schedule 6 to the National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) Regulations 2004(2) also applies in relation to complaints about such matters.

(3) Where a contractor who, being an ophthalmic medical practitioner, also performs primary medical services under a PMS agreement for any person to whom he provides general ophthalmic services, the complaints procedure established and operated under that agreement shall apply in relation to any matter reasonably connected with his provision of general ophthalmic services as it applies as respects his provision of services under the agreement.

(4) Accordingly, any requirement as to co-operation with investigations of complaints by other bodies imposed on a party to a PMS agreement under the term of its agreement which gives effect to paragraph 91 of Schedule 5 to the National Health Service (Personal Medical Services Agreements) Regulations 2004(3) also applies in relation to complaints about such matters.

(5) In this paragraph—

(a) “GMS contract” means a general medical services contract under section 28Q of the Act and “general medical services contractor” shall be construed accordingly; and

(b) “PMS agreement” means an agreement made under section 28C of the Act.

(6) For as long as there are in existence contracts entered into under article 13 of the General Medical Services Transitional and Consequential Provisions Order 2004(4) (“default contracts”) any reference in this paragraph to a GMS contract shall be read as including a reference to a contract entered into under that article and any reference to a term of a GMS contract shall be read as including a reference to the equivalent term of the default contract.

(7) For as long as there are in existence transitional agreements as defined in article 1(4) of the General Medical Services and Personal Medical Services Transitional and Consequential Provisions Order 2004, any reference in this paragraph to a personal medical services agreement shall be read as including a reference to a transitional agreement and any reference to a term of a personal medical services agreement shall be read as including a reference to any equivalent term in the transitional agreement.”.

(4) In paragraph 10 of Schedule 1A (information and undertakings to be given), for “whose dental, medical, pharmaceutical, supplementary or services list”, substitute “any of whose lists”.

(1)

S.I. 1986/975; relevant amending instruments are S.I. 2001/3739 and 2002/2469.

(2)

S.I. 2004/291.

(3)

S.I. 2004/291.

(4)

S.I. 2004/433.