Health and Personal Social Services (Disciplinary Procedures) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Provision as to quorum, composition and voting

8

• (1) At any hearing of a discipline committee other than a joint discipline committee the quorum shall consist of a chairman, two lay members and two members who are professional persons.

• (2) At any hearing of a joint discipline committee the quorum shall consist of the chairman, two lay members and two other members—

• (a) who are professional persons; and

• (b) in relation to—

• (i) one of whom, one of the practitioners is a relevant practitioner, and

• (ii) the other of whom, the other of the practitioners is a relevant practitioner.

• (3) The proceedings at any meeting of a discipline committee shall be suspended if, and for so long as—

• (a) the number of members present falls below the quorum specified in sub-paragraph (1) or (2); or

• (b) the number of lay members who are present exceeds, or is exceeded by, the number of other members (apart from the chairman) who are present.

• (4) Where after the commencement of a hearing before a discipline committee, the hearing is adjourned for the purposes of hearing further evidence or for preparing or considering the report, no member of the committee who was not present at the earlier sitting of the hearing shall be present at the proceedings of the resumed hearing.

• (5) Where there is an equality of votes among members of a discipline committee, the chairman shall have a casting vote, but shall not otherwise be entitled to vote.

Interpretation

9

In this Schedule, unless the context otherwise requires—

• (a) “lay member” and “professional person” have the meanings given to them in paragraph 8 of Schedule 1;

• (b) “parties” means the practitioner, the appropriate Board and any person treated as a party pursuant to paragraph 2(3);

• (c) “relevant practitioner” means where the practitioner is—

• (i) a doctor, a doctor,

• (ii) a dentist, a dentist,

• (iii) an optician or ophthalmic medical practitioner, an optician or ophthalmic medical practitioner,

• (iv) a pharmacist, a pharmacist;

• (d) “terms of service” means, in relation to a doctor acting as a deputy, the terms of service of the doctor for whom he was acting as a deputy.

SCHEDULE 3 — Specified failures to comply with terms of service

1

Any of the following failures to comply with terms of service is specified for the purposes of regulation 11(1) in relation to a doctor—

• (a) a failure to exercise reasonable care and skill in the treatment of a patient;

• (b) a failure to visit, or to treat, a patient whose condition so requires;

• (c) a failure to order, or to provide, any necessary drug or appliance for the use of a patient;

• (d) a failure to discharge any obligation on a doctor to give a patient the requisite assistance to enable him to obtain any treatment which is not within the scope of the doctor’s obligations under his terms of service.

2

A failure to exercise a proper degree of skill and attention in the treatment of a patient is specified for the purposes of regulation 11(1) in relation to a dentist.

SCHEDULE 4 — Rules of procedure under regulation 17

1

• (1) The Board shall prepare and submit to the Local Medical Committee a written statement of the facts in connection with which the question has arisen and of the decision given by the Board and the grounds on which it is based.

• (2) The Local Medical Committee shall, as soon as may be after receipt of the statement mentioned in sub-paragraph (1)—

• (a) furnish the Board with a written statement of the decision given by the Local Medical Committee and of the grounds on which the decision is based, and

• (b) inform the Board whether it concurs in the statement of facts prepared by the Board and, if not, in what respect it does not concur in that statement.

• (3) The Board shall send the statements prepared by itself and by the Local Medical Committee to the Department and the Department may, if it thinks fit, require both or either of those bodies to furnish it with further particulars regarding the facts of the case, or the decision, or the grounds for the decision.

2

• (1) Where the Department thinks fit to refer a matter under regulation 17(6), it may require either the Board or the Local Medical Committee to furnish written statements of the facts in connection with which the question has arisen and of its decision and the grounds on which the decision is based.

• (2) The Department shall inform any body which has furnished a statement under sub-paragraph (1)—

• (a) whether it concurs in the statement of facts; and

• (b) if it does not so concur, in what respects it does not concur; and

• (c) where head (b) applies, of its grounds for disagreeing with the decision.

• (3) The Department shall furnish copies of all documents mentioned in sub-paragraphs (1) or (2) to each of the referees appointed under regulation 17(3).

• (4) If, on consideration of the documents furnished under sub-paragraph (3), the referees are of the opinion that the question referred to them is similar to a question previously determined by them under regulation 17, they may dispense with a hearing and determine the case summarily.

• (5) Except in a case to which sub-paragraph (4) applies, the Department shall fix the time and place of the hearing, and shall not give less than 21 days notice in writing thereof to the Board and the Local Medical Committee.

• (6) The Board and the Local Medical Committee shall be entitled to be represented at the hearing by a member or officer duly appointed for the purpose, or by counsel or solicitor, and the Department may be represented by one of its officers.

• (7) Any person entitled by virtue of sub-paragraph (6) to appear at the hearing may produce such evidence as, in the opinion of the referees, may be relevant to the matters in issue.

• (8) The referees shall, as soon as may be after the hearing or after determining a case summarily, report to the Department the decision at which they have arrived.

Signed

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Health and Social Services on .

Joan Dixon — Assistant Secretary — 29th March 1996

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)

These Regulations supersede the Health and Personal Social Services (Services Committee) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1973 (“the 1973 Regulations”) to provide for the investigation and determination by Health and Social Services Boards (“Boards”), of questions whether doctors, dentists, chemists and opticians providing services under Part VI of the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1972 have failed to comply with their terms of service, and for the consideration and determination of appeals from determinations of Boards.

The Regulations make provisions replacing the system whereby complaints made against practitioners providing services under Part VI of the Order were dealt with by the Services Committee. The Services Committee is abolished and is replaced by discipline committees to which Boards will refer matters for investigation which raise allegations that a practitioner has failed to comply with his terms of service or concern overpayments made to such a practitioner (regulation 4). Unlike the Services Committee, discipline committees will not deal with complaints made by or on behalf of patients. Such complaints will be dealt with in accordance with regulations specified in regulation 2(2) and Directions given under Article 17 of the Order.

The regulations provide for the criteria which must be satisfied for a matter to be referred for investigation, the procedure for investigation, appeals and the imposition of and arrangements to enforce sanctions.

New provision is made for the procedure to be followed where the Department is considering whether an amount should be recovered from a practitioner in consequence of a breach of his terms of service (regulation 11), or whether a dentist who has been found in breach of his terms of service should be subject to a requirement to seek the prior approval of the Dental Committee before he may carry out certain descriptions of treatment (regulation 12).

New procedural provision is made for the investigation and determination of questions as to the excessive prescribing of drugs and appliances by doctors, and also for appeals from such determinations (regulation 14).

Provision is now made for the extension, by the Board, or Department, of time limits imposed under the Regulations in relation to the making of appeals, the submission of observations, and other matters (regulation 20).

Other provisions of these Regulations differ from those of the 1973 Regulations in minor respects, or in consequence of other changes which are mentioned above.

These Regulations, which come into operation on 1st April 1996, also make transitional provision in relation to the continued application of the 1973 Regulations to proceedings commenced under those Regulations before that date (regulation 23).

Footnotes

[^f00001]: S.I. 1972/1265 (N.I. 14); relevant amending instruments are S.I. 1978/1907 (N.I. 26), S.I. 1981/432, S.I. 1984/1158 (N.I. 8), S.I. 1986/2023 (N.I. 20), S.I. 1986/2229 (N.I. 24), S.I. 1988/2249 (N.I. 24) and S.I. 1991/194 (N.I. 1)

[^f00002]: S.I. 1988/2249 (N.I. 24)

[^f00003]: S.R. 1993 No. 326

[^f00004]: S.R. 1973 No. 421

[^f00005]: Article 55 was amended by Article 5 of the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1991

[^f00006]: S.R. 1976 No. 175

[^f00007]: S.R. 1986 No. 163

[^f00008]: S.R. 1993 No. 326; relevant amending regulations are S.R. 1996 No. 114.

[^f00009]: S.R. & O. 1973 No. 421; relevant amending regulations are S.R. 1996 No. 136

[^f00010]: S.R. 1986 No. 163; relevant amending regulations are S.R. 1996 No. 135

[^f00011]: S.R. 1976 No. 175

[^f00012]: See the Medical Act 1983 (c. 54), section 1

[^f00013]: See the Dentists Act 1984 (c. 24), section 1

[^f00014]: See the Opticians Act 1989 (c. 44), section 1

[^f00015]: S.R. & O. 1973 No. 416

[^f00016]: 1989 c. 44

[^f00017]: See section 10(7) of the Nurses, Midwives and Health Visitors Act 1979 (c. 36)

[^f00018]: S.I. 1991/194 (N.I. 1)