The General Medical Services and Personal Medical Services Transitional and Consequential Provisions Order 2004

Applications for approval of out of hours arrangements under general medical services contracts and default contracts

74.—(1) Where, on or before 31st March 2004, a medical practitioner had applied to the Primary Care Trust for approval of an out of hours arrangement under paragraph 18A(7) of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Regulations(1) but that application had not yet been determined, it shall, if the medical practitioner meets the requirements in paragraph (2), be treated, on 1st April 2004, as if it were an application made by the general medical services contractor under the term of its contract which gives effect to paragraph 2 of Schedule 7 to the 2004 Regulations (or by the default contractor under the equivalent term of its default contract) subject to the modification that the period of 28 days referred to in the term giving effect to paragraph 2(2) of Schedule 7 (or in the equivalent term of the default contract) shall be treated as beginning with the day on which the Primary Care Trust received the application under paragraph 18A(7) of Schedule 2 to the 1992 Regulations.

(2) The requirements referred to in paragraph (1) are that the medical practitioner—

(a)has entered as an individual medical practitioner into a general medical services contract or a default contract;

(b)is one of two or more individuals practising in partnership who have entered into such a contract; or

(c)is a legal and beneficial shareholder in a company which has entered into a general medical services contract.

(3) In any application which falls within paragraph (1)—

(a)any references to the patients of the medical practitioner shall be deemed to be references to the patients of the general medical services contractor or the default contractor;

(b)any references to the whole of the out of hours period shall be deemed to be references to—

(i)the period beginning at 6.30pm on any day from Monday to Thursday and ending at 8am on the following day,

(ii)the period between 6.30pm on Friday and 8am the following Monday, and

(iii)Good Friday, Christmas Day and bank holidays;

(c)in any reference to part of the out of hours period—

(i)any reference to 7pm on Monday to Friday shall be deemed to be a reference to 6.30pm, and

(ii)any reference to 1pm on Saturday shall be deemed to be a reference to 6.30pm on Friday; and

(d)any references to a particular transferee doctor shall be deemed to be references to—

(i)that person as a general medical services contractor, a default contractor or a party to contractual arrangements made under article 15 of the Transitional Order,

(ii)that person and any other medical practitioner with whom he is practising in partnership who have entered into a general medical services contract or a default contract or are a party to contractual arrangements made under article 15 of the Transitional Order, or

(iii)the company in which he is a legal and beneficial shareholder and which has entered into a general medical services contract.