(This note is not part of the Order)

This Order brings into force on 1st April 1996 all the remaining provisions of the National Health Service (Amendment) Act 1995, so far as they are not already in force. That Act amends the National Health Service Act 1977 (1977 c. 49) and the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978 (1978 c. 29).

The provisions brought into force relate to powers of the National Health Service Tribunal in relation to opticians, ophthalmic medical practitioners and pharmacists—

a

to direct the interim suspension of practitioners providing family health services under the National Health Service Act 1977 and under the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978, and

b

to declare when disqualifying them from inclusion in any list of such practitioners kept, in England and Wales, by a Family Health Services Authority or, in Scotland, by a Health Board that they are not fit to be engaged in any capacity in the provision of those services.