The National Health Service (General Medical and Pharmaceutical Services) Amendment (No. 2) Regulations 1990

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations further amend the National Health Service (General Medical and Pharmaceutical Services) Regulations 1974 (“the principal Regulations”) which govern the arrangements to be made by Family Practitioner Committees for the provision in their locality of general medical services and pharmaceutical services under the National Health Service Act 1977. By virtue of amendments made to that Act by the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990, Family Practitioner Committees are, from 17th September 1990, reconstituted as Family Health Services Authorities.

These Regulations amend the principal Regulations as they relate to the provision of general medical services and to the terms of service of general medical practitioners. In particular, regulation 3B of the principal Regulations is amended to make clear that a doctor seeking inclusion in the minor surgery list maintained under that regulation must satisfy the Family Health Services Authority that he has the experience, training and facilities necessary to enable him to provide all of the procedures listed in Schedule 1B to those Regulations (regulation 3). Provision in regulation 4 of, and in Schedules 1 and 1B to, the principal Regulations relating to the information which is to be included in the medical list and in practice leaflets is amended to enable a doctor to identity his practice area by reference to a sketch, diagram or plan rather than a map (regulations 4, 16(2) and (3) and 18). Amendments are made to regulations 16 and 17 of the principal Regulations to provide for Family Health Services Authorities to determine, in relation to the assigning of patients to doctors, matters formerly determined by Allocation Joint Committees, and to make provision for reviews of such determinations (regulations 5 and 6).

Amendments are made to the doctors' terms of service in Schedule 1 to the principal Regulations, in particular to remove the obligation on a doctor to measure a patient’s height on each occasion when he attends for a check-up under paragraph 13C of that Schedule, and to provide for the review of decisions relating to a doctor’s availability to his patients (regulation 16). Two deletions are also made in Schedule 1B to the principal Regulations which sets out the procedures which may be provided as part of minor surgery services (regulation 17).

These Regulations also amend the principal Regulations as they relate to the determination of applications to provide pharmaceutical services under the National Health Service Act 1977 in any locality, principally so as to provide that certain questions arising in connection with such applications which are presently determined by the Rural Dispensing Committee or by the pharmacy practices sub-committees or the dispensing sub-committees of Family Practitioner Committees are to be determined by the new Family Health Services Authorities.

In particular, new regulations 26A and 30E, and a new Schedule 4B, are substituted in the principal Regulations relating to the considerations by reference to which, and the procedure under which, Family Health Services Authorities are to determine applications to provide pharmaceutical services in or near a controlled locality (regulations 8, 14 and 19), and regulations 26B and 26C of the principal Regulations are amended to make consequential provision in relation to the determination of applications for preliminary consent (regulations 9 and 10). Amendments are also made to the arrangements under regulations 30 and 30A of the principal Regulations for the provision of pharmaceutical services by general medical practitioners in controlled localities, and for the determination by Family Health Services Authorities of applications in connection with such provision (regulations 11 and 12). Regulation 30D of the principal Regulations is amended so as to enable Family Health Services Authorities to determine whether or not an area is rural in character (regulation 13). Schedule 4C to the principal Regulations is amended in particular so as to remove provision for the establishment, functions and procedure of pharmacy practices sub-committees (regula-tion 20).

These Regulations also amend definitions in the principal Regulations (regulation 2), revoke provisions of those Regulations which relate to the establishment of Allocation Joint Committees and to dispensing sub-committees (regulation 21), make transitional provision (regulation 22) and make other amendments which are either of a minor nature or are consequential upon the amendments already described in this Note.