The National Health Service (General Medical Services Contracts) (Wales) Regulations 2023

Clinical references

67.—(1) The contractor may not employ or engage a health care professional to perform clinical services under the contract (other than an exempt medical practitioner to whom paragraph 61(3)(e) applies) unless—

(a) that person has provided two clinical references, relating to two recent posts (which may include any current post) as a health care professional which lasted for at least 12 weeks without a significant break or, where this is not possible, a full explanation of why this is the case and details of alternative referees, and

(b) the contractor has checked and is satisfied with the references.

(2) Where—

(a) the employment or engagement of a health care professional is urgently needed, and

(b) it is not possible for the contractor to obtain and check the references in accordance with sub-paragraph (1)(b) before employing or engaging that health care professional,

the contractor may employ or engage the health care professional on a temporary basis for a single period of up to 14 days while the references are checked and considered, and for an additional period of a further 7 days if the contractor believes that the person supplying those references is ill, on holiday or otherwise temporarily unavailable.

(3) Where the contractor employs or engages the same person on more than one occasion within a period of 12 weeks, the contractor may rely on the references provided on the first occasion, provided that those references are not more than a year old.