The National Health Service (Improved Access, Quality Information Preparation and Violent Patients Schemes) (England) Regulations 2003

Additional functions of Primary Care Trusts in relation to general medical services

2.  For the purposes of section 15(1)(b) of the 1977 Act (which, as respects England, relates to the duties of Primary Care Trusts in relation to family health services), the following are prescribed functions of each Primary Care Trust, that is to say the establishment, operation and, as appropriate, revision of the following schemes for their area—

(a) an Improved Access Scheme, the underlying purpose of which is to ensure that all patients in their area who are registered with a member of a GMS practice will, on request, be able to see face-to-face, by the end of—

(i) the first normal working day after the day on which the request was made, a health care professional who works with a general practitioner, and

(ii) the second normal working day after the day on which the request was made, a general practitioner;

(b) a Quality Information Preparation Scheme, the underlying purpose of which is to summarise and improve the quality of medical records held by GMS practices in their area; and

(c) a Violent Patients Scheme, the underlying purpose of which is to ensure that there are sufficient arrangements in place to provide general medical services to patients that have been subject to immediate removal from a patient list of a GMS practice in their area because of an act or threat of violence.