The National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts and Personal Medical Services Agreements) (Amendment) Regulations 2015

Insertion of new regulation 15A into the PMS Agreements Regulations

19.  After regulation 15 of the PMS Agreements Regulations(1) (fees and charges) insert—

“Patient participation

15A.— (1) A contractor which provides essential services must establish and maintain a group known as a “Patient Participation Group” comprising of some of its registered patients for the purposes of—

(a) obtaining the views of patients who have attended the contractor’s practice about the services delivered by the contractor; and

(b) enabling the contractor to obtain feedback from its registered patients about those services.

(2) The contractor is not required to establish a Patient Participation Group if such a group has already been established by the contractor pursuant to the provisions of any directions about enhanced services which were given by the Secretary of State under section 98A of the 2006 Act(2) before 1st April 2015.

(3) The contractor must make reasonable efforts during each financial year to review the membership of its Patient Participation Group in order to ensure that the Group is representative of its registered patients.

(4) The contractor must—

(a) engage with its Patient Participation Group, at such frequent intervals throughout each financial year as the contractor must agree with that Group, with a view to obtaining feedback from the contractor’s registered patients, in an appropriate and accessible manner which is designed to encourage patient participation, about the services delivered by the contractor; and

(b) review any feedback received about the services delivered by the contractor, whether pursuant to sub-paragraph (a) or otherwise, with its Patient Participation Group with a view to agreeing with that Group the improvements (if any) which are to be made to those services.

(5) The contractor must make reasonable efforts to implement such improvements to the services delivered by the contractor as are agreed between the contractor and its Patient Participation Group.

(6) In this regulation “financial year” means the 12 month period beginning on 1st April each year and ending on 31st March the following year.”.

(1)

Regulation 15 was amended by S.I. 2004/2694 and S.I. 2013/363.

(2)

Section 98A of the Act was inserted by section 49(1) of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (c.7).