National Health Service (Amendment) Act 1949

6 Existing agreements with medical assistants.

(1) Where an agreement in force on and immediately before the appointed day provides for the performance of services by a medical practitioner (hereafter in this section referred to as " the assistant") as an assistant to another medical practitioner (hereafter in this section referred to as " the employer "), and the name of the employer was on the appointed day, or has subsequently been, entered on a list of medical practitioners providing general medical services, section thirty-five of the Act of 1946 shall not affect, and shall be deemed never to have affected, the exercise or performance of any right or obligation conferred or imposed by the agreement on the assistant to purchase the goodwill or any part of the goodwill of the practice of the employer, or any right or obligation conferred or imposed by the agreement on the employer or his personal representative to sell the goodwill of his practice or any part thereof to the assistant, but any such agreement shall have effect subject to the following provisions of this section.

(2) Where, in the case of any such agreement, the name of the employer was entered on the appointed day on a list of medical practitioners undertaking to provide general medical services, then, notwithstanding anything in section thirty-six of the Act of 1946 or in the preceding subsection—

(a) there shall be determined in accordance with regulations made under the said section thirty-six the compensation payable in respect of the goodwill of the practice of the employer, in all respects as if the said section thirty-five of the Act of 1946 prohibited the sale of that practice, whether under the agreement or otherwise f and

(b) the payment of the compensation so determined and of interest thereon shall be subject to the following provisions of this section.

(3) Where any agreement to which the last preceding subsection applies imposes an obligation or confers an option on the assistant to purchase the goodwill of the practice of the employer or any part thereof and, in the case of an option, the option is exercised, that goodwill or part shall, if the name of the assistant has, before the time when the obligation is required to be performed or the option is first exercisable, been entered on a list of medical practitioners undertaking to provide general medical services, be transferred to him at the time and on the terms (except as to the payment of purchase price) provided in the agreement, and there shall be paid to the employer or his personal representative, on or as soon as possible after the completion of the transfer, in complete satisfaction of the purchase price, the compensation determined as aforesaid in respect of the goodwill of his practice or, in the case of the transfer of a part of that goodwill, a proportionate part of that compensation.

(4) Where any agreement to which subsection (2) of this section applies imposes an obligation on the assistant to purchase the goodwill of the practice of the employer or any part thereof and the name of the assistant has not, before the time when the obligation would have had to be performed, been entered on such a list as aforesaid, the obligation shall be deemed to be an option exercisable by notice in writing to purchase the goodwill or part not later than three months after the time at which, and otherwise on the same terms as those on which, the obligation would have had to be performed.

(5) Where the goodwill of the practice of the employer or any part thereof has been purchased by the assistant in pursuance of an option conferred by the last preceding subsection or in pursuance of an option conferred by the agreement and exercised at a time when the assistant was not entered on such a list as aforesaid, the compensation determined under subsection (2) of this section in respect of that goodwill, or as the case may be, a proportionate part of that compensation, shall not be paid and, in so far as it has been paid, shall be repaid to the Minister, and the interest on the compensation shall cease to be payable as from the date when the option was exercised:

Provided that the amount of compensation payable in respect of any other medical practice or share thereof under section thirty-six of the Act of 1946 shall not be increased in consequence of the said compensation not being paid.

(6) Where any agreement to which subsection (2) of this section applies contains provisions which take effect on the purchase of the goodwill of the employer's practice or any part thereof, those provisions shall take effect in like manner on the transfer of that goodwill or part in accordance with this section, notwithstanding that the transfer does not constitute a purchase.

(7) Where any agreement, not being an agreement to which subsection (2) of this section applies, imposes an obligation on the assistant to purchase the goodwill of the practice of the employer or any part thereof, that obligation shall, if the employer enters his name on such a list as aforesaid after the appointed day but before the time when the obligation would have had to be performed, be deemed to be an option exercisable by the assistant by notice in writing to purchase that goodwill or part thereof hot later than three months after the time at which, and otherwise on the same terms as those, on which, the obligation would have had to be performed.