Article 64 Assignment of patients: transitional agreements
A Primary Care Trust may require a contractor to assign a patient to a medical practitioner who performs personal medical services in connection with a transitional agreement to which the contractor is a party.
Where a Primary Care Trust is considering requiring a contractor to assign a patient to a medical practitioner under paragraph (1), it shall have regard to—
the wishes and circumstances of the patient to be assigned;
the distance between the patient’s place of residence and the contractor’s practice premises;
whether, during the six months ending on the date on which the application for assignment is received by the Primary Care Trust, the patient’s name has been removed from the list of patients of any provider of essential services (or their equivalent) in the area of the Primary Care Trust under paragraph 19 of Schedule 5 to the Personal Medical Services Agreements Regulations (or other equivalent provision);
whether the patient’s name has been removed from the list of patients of any provider of essential services (or their equivalent) under paragraph 20 of Schedule 5 to the Personal Medical Services Agreements Regulations (or other equivalent provision);
such other matters as the Primary Care Trust considers relevant.
Where a contractor is unable to comply, in accordance with this article or regulation 5 of the Choice Regulations (as modified by article 63) with a requirement to assign a patient to a medical practitioner, and the Primary Care Trust is satisfied, after due enquiry, that the person concerned still wishes to be assigned to a provider of essential services (or their equivalent), the Primary Care Trust shall as soon as practicable assign, or require the assignment of, that person to another provider of essential services (or their equivalent) or medical practitioner in accordance with any relevant agreement, contract or enactment.
A medical practitioner to whom a patient is assigned under this article or regulation 5 of the Choice Regulations (as modified by article 63) shall not be required to provide child health surveillance services, contraceptive services, maternity medical services or minor surgery services for that patient unless he is obliged to provide those services to him in connection with a transitional agreement.
Where a contractor has requested the Primary Care Trust to remove a patient from a medical practitioner’s list or a pooled list under a provision equivalent to paragraph 20 of Schedule 5 to the Personal Medical Services Agreements Regulations, the Primary Care Trust shall take all reasonable steps to assign, or require the assignment of, the patient to another provider of essential services (or their equivalent) or medical practitioner before the end of the working day after the day on which the Primary Care Trust receives notification from the contractor.
In paragraph (5)—
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“a medical practitioner’s list” means a list of a medical practitioner’s patients kept by a Primary Care Trust in respect of a medical practitioner performing personal medical services under a transitional agreement, in accordance with directions made under section 17 of the 1977 Act; and
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“a pooled list” means a list of persons who have been accepted by a contractor for the provision of personal medical services under a transitional agreement, and whose names are not included in a medical practitioner’s list.