The National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts and Personal Medical Services Agreements) (Amendment) (No. 2) Regulations 2020

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) Regulations 2015 (S.I. 2015/1862) (“the GMS Contracts Regulations”) and the National Health Service (Personal Medical Services Agreements) Regulations 2015 (S.I. 2015/1879) (“the PMS Agreements Regulations”) which make provision in respect of services provided under a general medical services contract and a personal medical services agreement made pursuant to Part 4 of the National Health Service Act 2006 (c. 41). They apply to England only.

The GMS Contracts Regulations and the PMS Agreements Regulations are amended so as to:

(a) amend regulation 3A(1) of both the GMS Contracts Regulations and the PMS Agreements Regulations to correct a drafting error in the National Health Service (Amendments Relating to the Provision of Primary Care Services During a Pandemic etc.) Regulations 2020 (S.I.2020/351) so that the wording concerning the making of an announcement in relation to a pandemic is consistent with the drafting of other changes made by this instrument and intended to have the same effect.

(b) amend regulation 74E and regulation 67E (NHS Digital Workforce Census) of the GMS Contracts Regulations and PMS Agreements Regulations, respectively, to update the guidance published by the Health and Social Care Information Centre (also known as NHS Digital) that will apply in relation to the data that must be recorded by contractors and submitted to the Centre for the purposes of the NHS Digital workforce collection.

(c) introduce a new requirement, regulation 74H and regulation 67H (collection of data relating to appointments in general practice) of the GMS Contracts Regulations and PMS Agreements Regulations, respectively, for participation by contractors in the collection of data held by practices relating to all appointments for the provision of primary medical services.

(d) amend paragraph 11B of Part 1 of Schedule 3 and paragraph 16B of Part 2 to Schedule 2 of the GMS Contracts Regulations and PMS Agreements Regulations, respectively, to correct a drafting error in the National Health Service (Amendments Relating to the Provision of Primary Care Services During a Pandemic etc.) Regulations 2020 (S.I. 2020/351) so that obligations of the contractor in relation to direct booking by NHS 111 apply equally where the service used is one approved by the Board and which is or may be accessed via NHS 111.

(e) amend paragraph 15A of Part 1 of Schedule 3 and paragraph 10A of Part 1 of Schedule 3 to the GMS Contracts Regulations and the PMS Agreements Regulations, respectively, to alter the definition of “primary care network” to reflect that a primary care network might be approved with a minimum population of less than 30,000 people.

(f) amend paragraph 17 of Part 2 of Schedule 3 and paragraph 13 of Part 2 of Schedule 2 (list of patients) of the GMS Contracts Regulations and PMS Agreements Regulations, respectively, to require contractors to comply with requests for information and update their patient lists, to facilitate the Board in fulfilling its obligations to prepare and keep up to date, a list of the contractor’s patients.

(g) amend paragraph 24 of Part 2 of Schedule 3 and paragraph 23 of Part 2 of Schedule 2 (removal from the list at the request of the contractor) of the GMS Contracts Regulations and PMS Agreements Regulations, respectively, to clarify the circumstances in which a contractor can request the removal of a patient from its list by the Board, where a patient has moved out of its catchment area as such patients are to be dealt with under paragraph 27 of Part 2 of Schedule 3 and paragraph 26 of Part 2 of Schedule 2 (removal from the list of patients who have moved) of the GMS Contracts Regulations and PMS Agreements Regulations, respectively.

(h) amend paragraph 25 of Part 2 of Schedule 3 and paragraph 24 of Part 2 of Schedule 2 (removal from the list of patients who are violent) of the GMS Contracts Regulations and the PMS Agreements Regulations, respectively, to prevent a contractor deregistering a patient previously removed from another contractor’s list because of violence, where that patient has participated in a violent patient scheme and has been discharged and hence eligible to register with a contractor to receive primary medical services or where that patient has successfully appealed allocation to a violent patient scheme.

(i) amend paragraph 38 of Part 4 of Schedule 3 and paragraph 37 of Part 4 of Schedule 2 (application of this Part: assignment of patients to lists) of the GMS Contracts Regulations and PMS Agreements Regulations, respectively, to amend the circumstances in which the Board can assign a new patient to a practice (where that person has been refused inclusion in a contractor’s list or accepted as a temporary patient) to include a practice in whose clinical commissioning group area the person resides.

(j) insert a new paragraph 40A of Part 4 of Schedule 3 and a new paragraph 39A of Part 4 of Schedule 2 (assignment of out of area patients) of the GMS Contracts Regulations and PMS Agreements Regulations, respectively, to allow the provisions for out of area registration under regulation 30 (variation of contract: registered patients from outside practice area) to apply to a new patient who has been assigned to a practice by the Board in circumstances where that patient resides outside of a contractor’s practice area but within the clinical commissioning group area of which it is a member, and the contractor elects to accept that patient as an out of area patient.

(k) amend paragraph 44 of Part 5 of Schedule 3 and paragraph 43 of Part 5 of Schedule 2 (sub-contracting of clinical matters) of the GMS Contracts Regulations and PMS Agreements Regulations, respectively, to provide an exception to the prohibition on a sub-contract permitting the sub-contracting of clinical services to provide that services provided under the Network Contract Directed Enhanced Service Scheme may be sub-contracted by the sub-contractor provided the Board agrees.

(l) amend paragraph 67 of Part 8 of Schedule 3 and paragraph 58 of Part 8 of Schedule 2 (other grounds for termination by the Board) of the GMS Contracts Regulations and the PMS Agreements Regulations, respectively, to add to the grounds for which the Board may give notice in writing to the contractor to terminate the contract to include where the contractor’s registration with the Care Quality Commission has been cancelled.

A full Impact Assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no, or no significant impact, on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen.