The Health and Personal Social Services (General Medical Services Contracts) (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005

Amendment of regulation 2 of the GMS Contracts Regulations

2.—(1) Regulation 2 (interpretation) of the GMS Contracts Regulations shall be amended as provided in the following paragraphs.

(2) After the definition of “assessment panel”, insert the following definition –

““batch issue” means a form provided by the Agency and issued by a prescriber at the same time as a repeatable prescription to enable a chemist to receive payment for the provision of repeat dispensing services, and which –

(a)

is generated by a computer and not signed by a prescriber,

(b)

relates to a particular repeatable prescription and contains the same dates as that prescription,

(c)

is issued as one of a sequence of forms, the number of which is equal to the number of occasions on which the drugs, medicines or appliances ordered on the repeatable prescription may be provided, and

(d)

specifies a number denoting its place in the sequence referred to in paragraph (c);”.

(3) In the definition of “general medical practitioner” –

(a) in paragraph (a), omit “otherwise than by virtue of paragraph 1(d) of Schedule 6 to that Order”;

(b) in paragraph (b)(i), after “National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978”, insert “or a person who has an acquired right to practise as a general medical practitioner pursuant to regulation 5(1)(d) of the Vocational Training for General Medical Practice (European Requirements) Regulations 1994(1)”; and

(c) in paragraph (b)(ii), omit “other than by virtue of having an acquired right under paragraph (1)(d) of Schedule 6 to the 2003 Order”.

(4) For the definition of “GP Registrar”, substitute –

“GP Registrar” means a medical practitioner who is being trained in general practice by –

(a)

until the coming into operation for all purposes of Article 4(5)(d) of the 2003 Order, a general medical practitioner who –

(i)

has been approved for that purpose by the Joint Committee on Postgraduate Training for General Practice under regulation 7 of the Medical Practitioners (Vocational Training) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998(2), and

(ii)

performs primary medical services; and

(b)

from the coming into operation for all purposes of that Article, a general medical practitioner who is approved under that Article for the purpose of providing training under Article 5(1)(c)(i) of the 2003 Order, whether as part of training leading to the award of a CCT or otherwise;”.

(5) Omit the definition of “GP Trainer”.

(6) In the definition of “independent nurse prescriber” –

(a) in paragraph (c)(i) for “Part XVIIB(i)” of the Drug Tariff substitute “Part IXB”; and

(b) in paragraph (c)(ii) for “Part XVIIB(ii)” substitute “Part IXC”.

(7) In the definition of “out of hours services”, in paragraph (a), after “if provided” insert “by a contractor to his registered patients”.

(8) For the description of “prescription form” substitute the following –

““prescription form” means a form provided by the Agency and issued by a prescriber to enable a person to obtain pharmaceutical services and does not include a repeatable prescription;”.

(9) After the definition of “relevant register”, insert the following definitions –

““repeat dispensing services” means pharmaceutical services which involve the provision of drugs, medicines or appliances by a chemist in accordance with a repeatable prescription;

“repeatable prescribing services” means services which involve the prescribing of drugs, medicines or appliances on a repeatable prescription;

“repeatable prescription” means a prescription contained in a form provided by the Agency and issued by a prescriber to enable a person to obtain pharmaceutical services and which –

(a)

is generated by a computer but signed by a prescriber, and

(b)

indicates that the drugs, medicines or appliances ordered on that form may be provided more than once and specifies the number of occasions on which they may be provided.”.

(1)

S.I. 1994/3130; regulation 5 was amended by S.I. 1997/2817 and modified by Article 117 of S.I. 2004/865. The whole Regulations are prospectively revoked by S.I. 2003/1250, Article 31(5) and Schedule 10, Part 2

(2)

S.R. 1998 No. 13