General Medical Services Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1997

Acceptance of patients

5.—(1) Subject to sub-paragraph (2), a doctor may agree to accept a person for inclusion in his list if the person is eligible to be so accepted by him.

(2) Where a doctor is responsible for treating the patients of another doctor whose name has been removed from the medical list, he may not consent to the transfer of any of those patients under regulation 21 to his own list or to that of his partner.

(3) Where a doctor has agreed to accept a person for inclusion in his list he shall, within 14 days of receiving that person’s medical card or form of application, or as soon after the expiry of that period as is practicable—

(a) sign the medical card or, as the case may be, the form of application; and

(b) send it to the Agency.

(4) Where, for the purposes of sub-paragraph (3), any person signs a medical card or form of application on behalf of a doctor he shall, in addition to his own signature, specify the name of the doctor on whose behalf he is signing.