General Medical Services Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations consolidate, with amendments, those provisions of the General Medical and Pharmaceutical Services Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1973 (the 1973 Regulations) which relate to general medical services. The provisions of the 1973 Regulations which relate to pharmaceutical services are consolidated, with amendments, in the General Pharmaceutical Services Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997. These Regulations therefore regulate the terms on which general medical services are provided under the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972.

The principal changes effected by the Regulations are the following.

The Regulations include criteria which doctors must meet for inclusion in, and retention on, the child health surveillance list and the minor surgery list (Regulations 26 and 35 and Parts VII and IX of Schedule 3).

The Regulations also contain revised procedures to be used in determining whether or not a substance supplied or ordered by a doctor for provision by a chemist is a drug the provision of which forms part of pharmaceutical services (regulation 40).

The Regulations are amended to provide that a doctor shall inform the Health and Social Services Board of the name of any doctor who has responsibility for his practice during any period of absence of more than 14 days (paragraph 25(2) of Schedule 2).