21.—(1) A contractor which wishes a patient to be removed from its list of patients with immediate effect on the grounds that —
(a)the patient has committed an act of violence against any of the persons specified in sub-paragraph (2) or behaved in such a way that any such person has feared for his or her safety; and
(b)it has reported the incident to the police,
shall notify the Local Health Board in accordance with sub-paragraph (3).
(2) The persons referred to in sub-paragraph (1) are —
(a)the contractor where it is an individual medical practitioner;
(b)in the case of a contract with two or more individuals practising in partnership, any partner in that partnership;
(c)in the case of a contract with a company, a legal and beneficial owner of shares in that company;
(d)a member of the contractor’s staff;
(e)a person engaged by the contractor to perform or assist in the performance of services under the contract; or
(f)any other person present—
(i) on the practice premises or
(ii)in the place where services were provided to the patient under the contract.
(3) Notification under sub-paragraph (1) may be given by any means including telephone or fax but if not given in writing shall subsequently be confirmed in writing within seven days (and for this purpose a faxed notification is not a written one).
(4) The Local Health Board shall acknowledge in writing receipt of a request from the contractor under sub-paragraph (1).
(5) A removal requested in accordance with sub-paragraph (1) shall take effect at the time that the contractor —
(a)makes the telephone call to the Local Health Board; or
(b)sends or delivers the notification to the Local Health Board.
(6) Where, pursuant to this paragraph, the contractor has notified the Local Health Board that it wishes to have a patient removed from its list of patients, it shall inform the patient concerned unless —
(a)it is not reasonably practicable for it to do so; or
(b)it has reasonable grounds for believing that to do so would —
(i)be harmful to the physical or mental health of the patient; or
(ii)put at risk the safety of the contractor or other persons,
(iii)put at risk the safety of one or more of the persons specified in sub-paragraph (2).
(7) Where the Local Health Board has removed a patient from the contractor’s list of patients in accordance with sub-paragraph (5) it shall give written notice of the removal to that patient.
(8) Where a patient is removed from the contractor’s list of patient in accordance with this paragraph, the contractor shall record in the patient’s medical records that the patient has been removed under this paragraph and the circumstances leading to the patient’s removal.