National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978

26 Arrangements for provision of general ophthalmic services

(1) It shall be the duty of every Health Board to make as respects their area, in accordance with regulations, arrangements with medical practitioners having the prescribed qualifications, with ophthalmic opticians and with dispensing opticians, for securing—

(a) the testing of sight by such medical practitioners and ophthalmic opticians, and

(b) the supply by ophthalmic opticians and dispensing opticians of optical appliances;

and the services provided in accordance with the arrangements are in this Act referred to as " general ophthalmic services ".

(2) Regulations may make provision as to the arrangements to be made under subsection (1), and shall include provision—

(a) for the preparation and publication of lists of medical practitioners, ophthalmic opticians and dispensing opticians respectively who undertake to provide general ophthalmic services;

(b) for conferring a right, subject to the provisions of this Act relating to the disqualification of practitioners, on any medical practitioner having the prescribed qualifications, any ophthalmic optician or any dispensing optician, who wishes to be included in the appropriate list, to be so included ;

(c) for conferring on any person a right to choose in accordance with the prescribed procedure the medical practitioner or ophthalmic optician by whom his sight is to be tested or from whom any prescription for the supply of optical appliances is to be obtained and the ophthalmic or dispensing optician who is to supply the appliances;

(d) for the removal from the list of medical practitioners, ophthalmic opticians or dispensing opticians undertaking to provide general ophthalmic services for persons in any area of the name of a medical practitioner, ophthalmic optician or dispensing optician, as the case may be, in whose case it has been determined, in such manner as may be prescribed, that he has never provided or has ceased to provide general ophthalmic services for persons in that area.

(3) The power conferred by this section to prescribe the qualifications to be possessed by any medical practitioner includes—

(a) power to prescribe a requirement that the practitioner shall show, to the satisfaction of a committee recognised by the Secretary of State for the purpose, that he possesses such qualifications (including qualifications as to experience) as may be mentioned in the regulations, and

(b) power to confer on a person who is dissatisfied with the determination of such a committee, a right of appeal to a committee appointed by the Secretary of State, and to make provision for any matter for which it appears to the Secretary of State to be requisite or expedient to make provision in consequence of the conferring of that right.