National Health Service Act 1977

[F1 49I Suspension E+W+S

(1) If the [F2 Primary Care Trust or] Health Authority are satisfied that it is necessary to do so for the protection of members of the public or is otherwise in the public interest, they may suspend a practitioner from their list—

(a) while they decide whether or not to exercise their powers under section 49F or 49G (other than in circumstances falling within paragraph (b)), or

(b) while they wait for a decision affecting the practitioner of a court or of a body which regulates—

(i) the practitioner’s profession,

(ii) the profession of a person providing any of the services mentioned in section 49F(1) on the practitioner’s behalf, or

(iii) if the practitioner is a body corporate, the profession of one of its directors or, as the case may be, one of the body of persons controlling it or (if it is a limited liability partnership) one of its members,

or one of that regulatory body’s committees.

(2) The references in subsection (1)(b) to a court or regulatory body are to a court or such a body anywhere in the world.

(3) In a case falling within subsection (1)(a), the [F2 Primary Care Trust or] Health Authority must specify how long the period of suspension is to be.

(4) In a case falling within subsection (1)(b), the [F2 Primary Care Trust or] Health Authority may specify that the practitioner shall remain suspended after the decision referred to there for an additional period which the [F2 Primary Care Trust or] Health Authority must specify.

(5) In either case—

(a) before that period expires they may extend, or further extend, the suspension for a further specified period, or

(b) if that period has expired, they may impose a further suspension, for a period which they must specify.

(6) The period of suspension (in a subsection (1)(a) case) or the additional period (in a subsection (1)(b) case), including in both cases the period of any further suspension imposed under subsection (5)(b), may not exceed six months in aggregate, except—

(a) in prescribed circumstances, when it may not extend beyond any prescribed event (which may be the expiry of a prescribed period),

(b) if, on the application of the [F2 Primary Care Trust or] Health Authority, the FHSAA orders accordingly before the expiry of the period of suspension, or

(c) if the [F2 Primary Care Trust or] Health Authority have applied under paragraph (b) before the expiry of the period of suspension, but the FHSAA has not made an order by the time it expires, in which case it continues until the FHSAA has made an order.

(7) If the FHSAA does so order, it shall specify—

(a) the date on which the period of suspension is to end, or

(b) an event beyond which it is not to continue.

(8) The FHSAA may, on the application of the [F2 Primary Care Trust or] Health Authority, make a further order (complying with subsection (7)) at any time while the period of suspension pursuant to the earlier order is still continuing.

(9) The Secretary of State may make regulations providing for payments to practitioners who are suspended.

(10) Those regulations may include provision for the amount of the payments, or the method of calculating the amount, to be determined by the Secretary of State or by another person appointed for the purpose by the Secretary of State.]

Textual Amendments

F1 S. 49I inserted (22.11.2001 for certain purposes for E., 14.12.2001 for all other purposes (except those relating to the provision of pharmaceutical services under the 1977 Act) for E. and 1.7.2002 for W. and 1.2.2003 for E. in so far as not already in force ) by 2001 c. 15, ss. 25, 70(2) (with ss. 64(9), 65(4)); S.I. 2001/3738, art. 2(2), Sch. 1 Pt. II; S.I. 2002/1475, art. 2(1), Sch. Pt. 1; S.I. 2003/53, art. 4(b)

F2 Words in s. 49I inserted (1.10.2002) by National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002 (c. 17), ss. 2(5), 42(3), Sch. 2 Pt. 1 para. 21(c); S.I. 2002/2478, art. 3(1)(d)