The National Health Service (Primary Medical Services Section 17C Agreements) (Scotland) Regulations 2018

Removal from the list of patients who are violent

12.—(1) A provider which wishes a patient to be removed from its list of patients with immediate effect on the grounds that—

(a) the patient has committed an act of violence against any of the persons specified in sub-paragraph (2) or behaved in such a way that any such person has feared for that person’s own safety; and

(b) the provider has reported the incident to the police or the Procurator Fiscal,

must notify the Health Board in accordance with sub-paragraph (3).

(2) The persons referred to in sub-paragraph (1) are—

(a) an individual that is a party to the agreement;

(b) a partner in a partnership that is a party to the agreement;

(c) a member of a limited liability partnership that is a party to the agreement;

(d) a member of a company that is a party to the agreement;

(e) a member of the provider’s staff;

(f) a person engaged by the provider to perform or assist in the performance of services under the agreement; or

(g) any other person present—

(i) on the practice premises; or

(ii) in the place where services were provided to the patient under the agreement.

(3) Notification under sub-paragraph (1) may be given by any means including telephone and must be confirmed in writing within 7 days (and for this purpose notification or transmission by electronic means is not a written one).

(4) The Health Board must acknowledge in writing receipt of a request from the provider under sub-paragraph (1).

(5) A removal requested in accordance with sub-paragraph (1) will take effect at the time that the provider—

(a) makes the telephone call to the Health Board; or

(b) sends or delivers the notification to the Health Board.

(6) Where, pursuant to this paragraph, the provider has notified the Health Board that it wishes to have a patient removed from the provider’s list of patients, it must inform the patient concerned unless—

(a) it is not reasonably practicable for the provider to do so; or

(b) the provider has reasonable grounds for believing that to do so would—

(i) be harmful to the physical or mental health of the patient; or

(ii) put at risk the safety of one or more of the persons specified in sub-paragraph (2).

(7) Where the Health Board has removed a patient from the provider’s list of patients in accordance with sub-paragraph (5) it must give written notice of the removal to that patient.

(8) Where a patient is removed from the provider’s list of patients in accordance with this paragraph, the provider must record in the patient’s medical records that the patient has been removed under this paragraph and the circumstances leading to the patient’s removal.