The National Health Service (General Ophthalmic Services Supplementary List) and (General Ophthalmic Services) (Amendment and Consequential Amendment) (Wales) Regulations 2006

Amendment of regulation 9B

32.—(1) Regulation 9B of the Ophthalmic Regulations (criteria for decisions on removal) is amended in accordance with the following provisions of this regulation.

(2) For paragraph (1) substitute the following paragraph—

“(1) Where a Local Health Board is considering whether to remove an ophthalmic medical practitioner or optician from its ophthalmic list under section 49F(4) of the Act (an unsuitability case), it must—

(a) consider any information relating to the ophthalmic medical practitioner or optician which it has received in accordance with any provision of Schedule 1 or 1A;

(b) check with the National Assembly for Wales as to any record held by it about past or current investigations or proceedings involving or relating to the ophthalmic medical practitioner or optician; and

(c) in reaching its decision, take into consideration the matters set out in paragraph (2).”.

(3) In paragraph (2)—

(a) for “criteria” substitute “matters”;

(b) for sub-paragraphs (b) to (f) substitute the following sub-paragraphs—

“(b) the length of time since any offence, incident, conviction or investigation;

(c) whether there are other offences, incidents or investigations to be considered;

(d) any action taken or penalty imposed by any licensing or regulatory body, the police or the courts as a result of any such offence, incident or investigation;

(e) the relevance of any offence, incident or investigation to the ophthalmic medical practitioner or optician’s provision of general ophthalmic services and the likely risk to his or her patients or to public finances;

(f) whether any offence was a sexual offence to which Part 1 of the Sexual Offences Act 2003 applies, or if had been committed in England and Wales, would have applied;”;

(c) after sub-paragraph (h) add the following—

“and

(j) in the case of a corporate optician, whether a person who, at the time of the originating events, was one of its directors, has been refused admittance to, conditionally included in, removed contingently or suspended from any list, or equivalent list and, if so, the facts relating to the matter which led to such action and the reasons given by the Local Health Board or equivalent body for such action.”.

(4) For paragraph (3) substitute the following paragraph—

“(3) Where a Local Health Board is considering whether to remove an ophthalmic medical practitioner or optician from its ophthalmic list under section 49F(3) of the Act (“a fraud case”), it must—

(a) consider any information relating to the ophthalmic medical practitioner or optician which it has received in accordance with any provision of Schedule 1 or 1A;

(b) check with the National Assembly for Wales as to any record held by it about past or current investigations or proceedings involving or relating to the ophthalmic medical practitioner or optician; and

(c) in reaching its decision, take into consideration the matters set out in paragraph (4).”.

(5) In paragraph (4)—

(a) for “criteria” substitute “matters”;

(b) in sub-paragraph (d) for “any such incident” substitute “any such offence, investigation or incident”; and

(c) at the end of sub-paragraph (g) add the following—

“and

(j) in the case of a corporate optician, whether a person who, at the time of the originating events, was one of its directors, has been refused admittance to, conditionally included in, removed, contingently removed or suspended from any list or equivalent list and, if so, the facts relating to the matter which led to such action and the reasons given by the Local Health Board or equivalent body for such action.”.

(6) For paragraph (5) substitute the following paragraph—

“(5) Where a Local Health Board is considering whether to remove an ophthalmic medical practitioner or optician from its ophthalmic list under section 49(F)(2) of the Act (“an efficiency case”), it must—

(a) consider any information relating to the ophthalmic medical practitioner or optician which it has received in accordance with any provision of Schedule 1 or 1A.

(b) check with the National Assembly for Wales as to any record held by it about past or current investigations or proceedings involving or relating to the ophthalmic medical practitioner or optician; and

(c) in reaching its decision, take into consideration the maters set out in paragraph (6).”.

(7) In paragraph (6)—

(a) for “criteria” substitute “matters”;

(b) at the end of sub-paragraph (f) add “or the Supplementary List Regulations”; and

(c) at the end of sub-paragraph (h) add the following—

“and

(j) in the case of a corporate optician, whether a person, who, at the time of the originating events, was one of its directors, has been refused admittance to, conditionally included in, removed, contingently removed or suspended from any list or equivalent list and, if so, the facts relating to the matter which led to such action and the reasons given by the Local Health Board or equivalent body for such action.”.