The General Medical Services Transitional and Consequential Provisions (No. 1) (Northern Ireland) Order 2004

Effect of termination of a default contract on entitlement to enter into a general medical services contract under Articles 3 or 5 N.I.

7.—(1) Any entitlement which a person may have under Articles 3 or 5 to enter into a general medical services contract with a Board after 31st March 2004 shall be extinguished if any default contract with that Board to which he was a party (whether as an individual medical practitioner or as one of two or more individuals practising in partnership) has been terminated other than in the circumstances specified in paragraph (2).

(2) The circumstances referred to in paragraph (1) are that the default contract has been terminated by agreement between the parties in order to enable those parties to enter into a general medical services contract.

(3) Where –

(a) a person has lost his entitlement to enter into a general medical services contract under paragraph (1);

(b) the default contractor has, within 28 days of the date of the notice of termination served on him by the Board, referred the termination of the default contract to the Department to consider and determine under the dispute resolution procedure contained in the default contract; and

(c) the Department has determined that the Board should not have terminated the default contract,

that person’s entitlement to enter into a general medical services contract shall be restored as if the default contract had not been terminated.

(4) A person to whom paragraph (3) applies shall be entitled to exercise his entitlement to enter into a general medical services contract until –

(a) the end of the period of 6 weeks after the date on which he was notified of the Department’s determination that the Board should not have terminated the default contract; or

(b) in a case where either party has, before the end of the period of six weeks referred to in sub-paragraph (a), referred the terms of the general medical services contract to the Department to consider and determine under Article 8(4) of the 1991 Order or regulation 9 of the 2004 Regulations but that dispute has not been determined or withdrawn, the end of the period of 28 days from and including the date on which the parties were notified of the determination of that dispute or the dispute was withdrawn,

unless Article 11 applies.

Commencement Information

I1 Art. 7 in operation at 29.3.2004, see art. 1(1)