PART 8Standing rules: choice of health service provider
Duty to ensure persons are offered a choice of health service provider39
1
A relevant body must make arrangements to ensure that a person—
a
who requires an elective referral; and
b
for whom that body has responsibility,
is given the choices specified in paragraph (2).
F12
Subject to regulations 40 and 41, the choices specified for the purposes of this paragraph are the choice—
a
in respect of a first outpatient appointment with a consultant or a member of a consultant’s team F6, inclusive of any subsequent treatment required as a result of that elective referral, of—
i
any clinically appropriate health service provider with whom any relevant body has a F7qualifying contract, and
ii
any clinically appropriate team led by a named consultant who is employed or engaged by that health service provider; and
b
in relation to an elective referral for mental health services in respect of which the patient’s first outpatient appointment is not with a consultant or a member of a consultant’s team F8, inclusive of any subsequent treatment required as a result of that elective referral, of—
i
any clinically appropriate health service provider with whom any relevant body has a F9qualifying contract, and
ii
any clinically appropriate team led by a named health care professional who is employed or engaged by that health service provider.
F23
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F24
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5
The arrangements referred to in F3paragraph (1) must include such arrangements as are necessary to ensure that a person may make the choices specified in F5that paragraph where that person—
a
has not been offered that choice by the person making the initial referral; and
b
notifies the relevant body who has responsibility for that person that that choice was not offered.
6
For the purposes of this Part, a health service provider, or a team led by a consultant or a health care professional, is clinically appropriate if, in the opinion of the person making the referral, they offer services that are clinically appropriate for that person in respect of the condition for which that person is referred.
F47
Where—
a
a person makes a choice pursuant to the arrangements required by paragraph (1), and
b
the relevant body which is responsible for that person does not have in place a commissioning contract for the service required as a result of the referral,
the terms of the qualifying contract referred to in paragraph (2) under which the service is to be provided apply to the provision of the service required in respect of the person’s referral.
8
In this regulation, “qualifying contract” means an NHS Standard Contract which—
a
is signed and in effect before the date on which the referral is made,
b
is a commissioning contract for the service required as a result of the referral,
c
requires that service to be provided from the location specified in that contract or sets out the criteria specified in that contract which determine the means by which a service will be accessible to patients, and
d
is not a contract put in place solely to provide that service to a specified individual.