The Health and Personal Social Services (General Medical Services Contracts) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004

Duty of co-operation in relation to additional, enhanced and out of hours services

12.—(1) A contractor which does not provide to his registered patients or to persons whom he has accepted as temporary residents –

(a) a particular additional service;

(b) a particular enhanced service; or

(c) out of hours services, either at all or in respect of some periods or some services,

shall comply with the requirements specified in sub-paragraph (2).

(2) The requirements referred to in sub-paragraph (1) are that the contractor shall –

(a) co-operate with any person responsible for the provision of that service;

(b) comply in core hours with any reasonable request for information from such a person or from the Board relating to the provision of that service or those services; and

(c) in the case of out of hours services, take reasonable steps to ensure that any patient who contacts the practice premises during the out of hours period is provided with information about how to obtain services during that period.

(3) Nothing in this paragraph shall require a contractor whose contract does not include the provision of out of hours services to make himself available during the out of hours period.