General Medical Services Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997

Application to fill a vacancy

9.—(1) An application by a doctor—

(a) to succeed to a practice declared vacant; or

(b) to fill a vacancy which has arisen where a Board has resolved that an additional doctor is required in an area otherwise than in succession to another doctor,

shall be made by sending the application to the Agency by no later than the date specified in the notice given under regulation 8(3) in respect of the vacancy to which the application relates, or within such further period as the Agency may for reasonable cause allow, and shall include the information and undertakings specified in Parts IIA and IIB of Schedule 3 and, in the case of a doctor whose name is not already included in the medical list, the evidence, information and undertakings specified in Part IIC of that Schedule.

(2) On receipt of an application under paragraph (1), the Agency shall constitute a panel comprising—

(a) members of the Medical Committee;

(b) representatives of the Board for the area where the vacancy occurs; and

(c) representatives of the Local Medical Committee,

to consider the applications, and the panel shall, subject to Article 56(2A) of the Order(1) (which contains requirements as to knowledge of English), make a recommendation and the recommendation shall be forwarded by the Agency to the Board which shall arrange for the application to be dealt with in accordance with regulation 12.

(3) In this regulation, in regulation 21(6) and in paragraph 16(5) of the terms of service, “practice declared vacant” means a practice which has been rendered vacant under regulation 8(1) and for which the Board has decided under regulation 8(3) that a doctor is required to fill the vacancy.

(1)

Article 56(2A) was inserted by Article 5(1)(b) of S.I. 1981/432 and amended by Article 29 of S.I. 1991/194 (N.I. 1)