National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978

26 Arrangements for provision of general ophthalmic services.S

(1)It shall be the duty of every Health Board to make as respects their area, in accordance with regulations, arrangements with medical practitioners having the prescribed qualifications, [F1and with ophthalmic opticians], for securing [F2the carrying out of eye examinations including where clinically necessary testing of sight.]

(1A)F3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(1B)F3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(1C)F3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(1D)F3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(1E)F3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

(1F)Regulations shall define the services for the provision of which arrangements under this section are to be made and the services so defined are in this Act referred to as “general ophthalmic services”.

[F4(2)Regulations may make provision as to the arrangements to be made under subsection (1), and shall include provision—

(a)as to the preparation, maintenance and publication by every Health Board of a list—

(i)the first part of which shall be of medical practitioners and ophthalmic opticians who undertake to provide general ophthalmic services under arrangements with the Board;

(ii)the second part of which shall be of persons who do not undertake to provide such services under such arrangements but who are approved by the Board to assist in the provision of such services provided under such arrangements;

(b)conferring on any person a right to choose in accordance with the prescribed procedure the medical practitioner or ophthalmic optician by whom his eyes are to be examined, his sight is to be tested or from whom any prescription for the supply of optical appliances is to be obtained.

(2A)In making provision as to the matters referred to in subsection (2)(a), the regulations may include in particular provision as to—

(a)the division of either part (or both parts) of a list into further sub-parts;

(b)eligibility for inclusion in a list;

(c)applications for inclusion (including provision for the procedure for applications to be made and dealt with and the documents to be supplied on application);

(d)the grounds on which an application for inclusion must be granted or refused;

(e)requirements with which a person included in a list must comply (including requirements as to standards of performance and patient care and as to declarations, consents or undertakings);

(f)suspension or removal from a list (including the grounds for and consequences of suspension or removal);

(g)circumstances in which a person included in a list may not withdraw from it;

(h)payments to be made by a Health Board in respect of a person suspended from a list (including provision for the amount of, or the method of calculating, the payment to be determined by the Scottish Ministers);

(i)criteria to be applied in making decisions under the regulations;

(j)disclosure of information about applicants for inclusion, refusals of applications, or suspensions, removals or references to the Tribunal, including in particular the disclosure of information about any such matter by a Health Board to the Scottish Ministers and by the Scottish Ministers to a Health Board.

(2B)Regulations may provide that—

(a)a medical practitioner or ophthalmic optician who undertakes to provide general ophthalmic services under arrangements with a Health Board may not provide such services unless his name is included in the first part of the Board's list referred to in subsection (2)(a)(i);

(b)a person who does not undertake to provide general ophthalmic services under arrangements with a Health Board may not assist in the provision of such services provided under arrangements with the Board unless his name is included in the second part of the Board's list referred to in subsection (2)(a)(ii).]

(3)The power conferred by this section to prescribe the qualifications to be possessed by any medical practitioner includes—

(a)power to prescribe a requirement that the practitioner shall show, to the satisfaction of a committee recognised by the Secretary of State for the purpose, that he possesses such qualifications (including qualifications as to experience) as may be mentioned in the regulations, and

(b)power to confer on a person who is dissatisfied with the determination of such a committee, a right of appeal to a committee appointed by the Secretary of State, and to make provision for any matter for which it appears to the Secretary of State to be requisite or expedient to make provision in consequence of the conferring of that right.