The National Health Service (Pharmaceutical Services) (Wales) Regulations 2020

Arrangements for the provision of pharmaceutical services by doctors E+W

26.—(1) A Local Health Board may make an arrangement with a doctor who falls within paragraph (8) for the doctor to provide pharmaceutical services to a patient included on the doctor’s patient list or the patient list of a provider of primary medical services by whom the doctor is employed or engaged, if the patient—

(a) would have serious difficulty in obtaining any necessary drugs or appliances from a pharmacy because of distance or inadequacy of means of communication, and the conditions in paragraph (2) are satisfied,

(b) is resident in a controlled locality, at a distance of more than 1.6 kilometres from any pharmacy, and the conditions specified in paragraph (4) are satisfied, or

(c) is resident in a controlled locality and any pharmacy within a distance of 1.6 kilometres from where the patient lives has been determined to be in a reserved location, and that determination has not been altered on appeal or by way of a further determination and the conditions specified in paragraph (4) are satisfied.

(2) The conditions referred to in paragraph (1)(a) are—

(a) the patient has made a request in writing to the Local Health Board for the doctor to provide them with pharmaceutical services for the reasons specified in paragraph (1)(a), and

(b) the Local Health Board is satisfied that the patient would have serious difficulty in obtaining any necessary drugs or appliances for those reasons.

(3) In making an arrangement with a doctor for the doctor to provide a patient under paragraph (1)(a) with pharmaceutical services from practice premises, the Local Health Board must give reasonable notice in writing to the doctor of when the arrangement is to take effect unless the doctor satisfies the Local Health Board that—

(a) the doctor does not normally provide pharmaceutical services to patients, or

(b) the patient would not have serious difficulty in obtaining drugs and appliances from a pharmacy because of distance or inadequacy of means of communication.

(4) The conditions referred to in paragraph (1)(b) and (c) are that—

(a) outline consent has been granted to the doctor or the provider of primary medical services by whom the doctor is employed or engaged,

(b) premises approval has been granted in relation to the premises from which the doctor will provide pharmaceutical services to that patient,

(c) the outline consent and premises approval has taken effect under regulation 31 (taking effect of outline consent and premises approval), and

(d) any conditions imposed under these Regulations in connection with the grant of outline consent or premises approval are such as to permit arrangements to be made under this regulation for the provision of pharmaceutical services by that doctor to patients under paragraph (1)(b) or (c).

(5) References in paragraph (4) to outline consent, premises approval and conditions imposed include references to those in effect under the 2013 Regulations.

(6) A doctor with whom an arrangement has been made to provide pharmaceutical services to a patient under this regulation may, with the consent of the patient, instead of providing the drugs or appliances order them by issuing a prescription to the patient.

(7) Where an arrangement for a doctor to provide pharmaceutical services to a patient was in effect immediately before these Regulations came into force, that arrangement will have effect as though made under this regulation notwithstanding that the conditions in paragraph (4) are not satisfied.

(8) A doctor falls within this paragraph if they are—

(a) a GMS contractor or an APMS contractor,

(b) engaged or employed by a GMS contractor or an APMS contractor, or

(c) is engaged by a Local Health Board for the purposes of providing primary medical services to a LHBMS practice.

(9) A doctor may appeal to the Welsh Ministers against a decision of a Local Health Board under paragraph (3). The appeal must be made in writing within 30 days beginning with the date on which notice of the decision was sent to the doctor and must contain a concise statement of the grounds of appeal.

(10) The Welsh Ministers must, on receipt of any notice of appeal under paragraph (9), send a copy of that notice to the Local Health Board and the relevant GMS contractor or APMS contractor, and the Local Health Board and the relevant GMS contractor or APMS contractor may, within 30 days from the date on which the Welsh Ministers sent a copy of the notice of appeal, make representations in writing to the Welsh Ministers.

(11) The Welsh Ministers may determine an appeal pursuant to paragraph (9) in such manner as they see fit, taking into consideration the preliminary matters in Part 1 of Schedule 4.

(12) The Welsh Ministers must, upon determination by them of any appeal under paragraph (9), give notice of their decision in writing, together with the reasons for it, to the appellant, to the Local Health Board, and to the relevant GMS contractor or APMS contractor.

Commencement Information

I1 Reg. 26 in force at 1.10.2021, see reg. 1(3)