Part 1 National Health Service

General and personal medical services, general dental services, general ophthalmic services and pharmaceutical services

I118 Out of hours medical services

1

This section applies to arrangements made by—

a

a medical practitioner, in connection with any obligation of his to provide general medical services under arrangements under section 29 of the 1977 Act, or

b

any person (the “participant”), in connection with any obligation of his to provide personal medical services under section 28C arrangements,

under which a person undertakes, or persons undertake, to provide out of hours services.

2

Regulations may make provision—

a

for such arrangements to be made, in the case of a service provider of a specified description, only if the service provider is approved in accordance with the regulations;

b

for approval to be given, as respects out of hours services provided for persons in the area of any Health Authority, by that Authority or by another Health Authority;

c

as to steps to be taken by any Health Authority for making available information about approvals which have been given;

d

as to the procedure for applying for approval;

e

as to requirements (including requirements imposed by a Health Authority) with which an approved service provider must comply;

f

as to the suspension or withdrawal of any approval;

g

as to circumstances in which, while the arrangements are in force, there may be transferred to the service provider—

i

liabilities or obligations of the medical practitioner by virtue of Part 2 of the 1977 Act, or

ii

(as the case may be) liabilities or obligations of the participant by virtue of the section 28C arrangements;

h

as to criteria to be applied in making decisions under the regulations;

i

as to appeals against decisions of Health Authorities under the regulations.

3

In this section—

  • “medical practitioner” has the same meaning as in the 1977 Act;

  • “out of hours period” means any period specified by the regulations as such a period;

  • “out of hours services” means general medical services or personal medical services (as the case may be) provided during part or all of an out of hours period;

  • “section 28C arrangements” means arrangements made under section 28C of the 1977 Act;

  • “service provider”, in relation to arrangements to which this section applies, means the person or persons undertaking to provide out of hours services under the arrangements.