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The National Health Service (Primary Dental Services and General Ophthalmic Services) (Miscellaneous Amendments and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2015

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EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the National Health Service (General Dental Services Contracts) Regulations 2005 (“the GDS Regulations”), the National Health Service (Personal Dental Services Agreements) Regulations 2005 (“the PDS Regulations”) and the General Ophthalmic Services Contracts Regulations 2008 (“the GOS Regulations”), which together provide the framework legislation for the contracts governing the provision, as part of the National Health Service in England, of primary dental services and general ophthalmic services.

Providers of services under the contracts in respect of which provision is made by the GDS, PDS and GOS Regulations may choose to be a “health service body” and so for their contract to be an NHS contract – and if they do, they may also choose to cease to be such a body and so for their contract to cease to be an NHS contract. Where a contractor does choose to cease to be a health service body, the amendments made by these Regulations have the effect of providing that all disputes relating to the period when their contract was an NHS contract are to be dealt with via the NHS dispute resolution procedure (regulations 2, 5, 6, 9, 10 and 11). An exception is made in a transitional provision which provides, in effect, that if a dispute was already the subject of legal proceedings before these Regulations came into force, that dispute is to be determined in accordance with the relevant legislation as it applied at that time (regulation 12). Before these Regulations came into force, disputes under a contract in respect of which provision is made by the GDS, PDS and GOS Regulations that was not an NHS contract, but which related to a time when the contract was an NHS contract, could only be dealt with via the NHS dispute resolution procedure (if they had not been referred to that procedure when the contract was an NHS contract) with the contractor’s consent.

Regulations 3 and 7 respectively amend the GDS Regulations and the PDS Regulations to extend the end date for Capitation and Quality Scheme 2 Agreements to 31st March 2016.

Regulation 4 inserts a new contract term into the GDS Regulations which introduces a requirement on contractors to give their patients the opportunity to complete the Friends and Family Test by which patients are able to provide anonymous feedback about the service received at the contractor’s practice. Regulation 8 makes a similar amendment to the PDS Regulations.

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