General Dental Services (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These regulations further amend the Health and Personal Social Services General Dental Service Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993 (“the principal regulations”) which regulate the terms on which general dental services are provided under the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972.

Regulations 2, 3 and 6 require the additional information to be provided by dentists who are applying to be included in the dental list. Such dentists must now advise the Board if they have insurance indemnity cover and if they are subject to any Secretary of State restrictions on employment.

Regulation 4 makes clear that a dentist, practising dentistry in either the community dental service or the armed forces, needs to have practised primary dental care for four months (or its part time equivalent) in the four years preceding his application for a vocational training certificate if he is to benefit from the relevant exemption from vocational training.

Regulation 5 amends Schedule 2 to the principal regulations, which contains dentists' terms of service. It includes a provision that dentists may terminate, with immediate effect, a capitation arrangement or a continuing care arrangement with a patient who has been violent to, or who has threatened with violence, the dentist or one of his employees. It also places a requirement on dentists to respond to a request for information about their professional indemnity insurance from a Board.

Regulation 7 amends Schedule 5 to the principal regulations to increase from £200 to £230 the amount specified as the maximum cost or likely cost of care and treatment which a dentist may undertake without seeking the prior approval of the Dental Committee.