Financial provisions
Funding of preparatory work
18.—(1) Provision may be made by regulations for boards to make payments of financial assistance for preparatory work.
(2) “Preparatory work” means work which it is reasonable for a person to undertake—
(a)in connection with preparing proposals for a pilot scheme; or
(b)in preparing for the provision by him of any piloted services.
(3) Regulations under this Article may, in particular, include provision—
(a)prescribing the circumstances in which payments of financial assistance may be made;
(b)imposing a limit on the amount of any payment of financial assistance which a board may make in any prescribed period in respect of any one person or any one pilot scheme;
(c)imposing a limit on the aggregate amount which a board may pay by way of financial assistance in any one financial year;
(d)requiring a person to whom assistance is given under this Article to comply with such conditions as may be imposed in accordance with prescribed requirements; and
(e)for repayment in the case of a failure to comply with any condition so imposed.
Fund-holding practices
19. Article 17 of the 1991 Order (recognition of fund-holding practices of doctors) applies—
(a)in relation to the provision of personal medical services under a pilot scheme as it applies in relation to the provision of general medical services in accordance with arrangements under Article 56 of the 1972 Order; but
(b)only in relation to medical practitioners who are not employed by another person.
Charges for dental treatment
20.—(1) Regulations may provide for the making and recovery, in such manner as may be prescribed, of charges for dental treatment provided in accordance with pilot schemes.
(2) “Dental treatment” means personal dental services other than those to which paragraph 1(a)(k) of Schedule 15 to the 1972 Order applies.
(3) The regulations must secure that the amount charged for a particular treatment (or course of treatment) is the same as the amount that would be charged for that treatment (or course of treatment) if it were provided under Part VI of the 1972 Order.
(4) The regulations may—
(a)provide for the amount or the maximum amount of any charge authorised by the regulations to be varied in prescribed circumstances; or
(b)give power to direct that the charge is not to be payable.
(5) If, under a contract or arrangement, a patient receives—
(a)services for which a charge is payable under paragraph 1(a)(iaa) of Schedule 15 to the 1972 Order; and
(b)treatment for which a charge is payable under the regulations,
the total charge for those services and that treatment is not to exceed such sum as may be prescribed.
(6) No charge is to be made under the regulations in respect of treatment provided for any person who, at the time of the making of the contract or arrangement under which the treatment is provided—
(a)was under 18;
(b)was under 19 and receiving qualifying full-time education;
(c)was pregnant; or
(d)had given birth within the previous twelve months.
(7) In paragraph (6)(b) “qualifying full-time education” has the same meaning as in paragraph 2A(3) of Schedule 15 to the 1972 Order.
(8) The regulations may provide, with respect to any exemption under paragraph (6), that it is to be a condition of the exemption that—
(a)a declaration of the prescribed kind is made in the prescribed form or manner; or
(b)a certificate of the prescribed kind is supplied in the prescribed form or manner.