General Medical Services Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997

Patients not seen within 3 years

17.—(1) Subject to sub-paragraph (2), where a patient who—

(a) has attained the age of 16 years but has not attained the age of 75 years; and

(b) within the preceding 3 years has attended neither a consultation with, nor a clinic provided by, any doctor in the course of his provision of general medical services,

requests a consultation for the purposes of assessing whether he needs personal medical services, a doctor shall, in addition to and without prejudice to any other obligation under these terms of service, provide such a consultation.

(2) Sub-paragraph (1) shall not apply in the case of a doctor who is a restricted services principal.

(3) Where a doctor provides a consultation mentioned in sub-paragraph (1), the doctor shall, in the course of that consultation—

(a) seek details from the patient as to his medical history and, so far as may be relevant to the patient’s medical history, as to that of his consanguineous family, in respect of—

(i) illnesses, immunisations, allergies, hereditary conditions, medication and tests carried out for breast or cervical cancer;

(ii) social factors (including employment, housing and family circumstances) which may affect his health;

(iii) factors of his lifestyle (including diet, exercise, use of tobacco, consumption of alcohol and misuse of drugs or solvents) which may affect his health; and

(iv) the current state of his health;

(b) offer to undertake a physical examination of the patient, comprising—

(i) the measurement of his blood pressure;

(ii) the taking of a urine sample and its analysis to identify the presence of albumen and glucose; and

(iii) the measurements necessary to detect any changes in body mass;

(c) record, in the patient’s medical records, his findings arising out of the details supplied by, and any examination of, the patient under this sub-paragraph;

(d) assess whether and, if so, in what manner and to what extent he should render personal medical services to the patient;

(e) in so far as it would not, in the opinion of the doctor, be likely to cause serious damage to the physical or mental health of the patient to do so, offer to discuss with the patient the conclusions the doctor has drawn as a result of the consultation as to the state of the patient’s health.