(1) Regulation 24 of the principal Regulations (temporary provision of general medical services) is amended as follows.
(2) At the end of paragraph (2), insert “and where a doctor is suspended by direction of the Tribunal, the Board shall, after consultation with the Area Medical Committee, make arrangements for the temporary provision of general medical services for the suspended doctor’s patients with one or more doctors on the medical list of the Board (one or more of whom may be partners of the suspended doctor) or with one or more doctors appointed for the purpose, or both”.
(3) In paragraph (17), at the beginning insert “Where paragraph (17A) does not apply,”.
(4) After paragraph (17) insert—
(17A) In the case of a doctor who has been suspended by direction of the Tribunal—
(a) the Board shall temporarily assign each of the suspended doctor’s patients to the list of one of the doctors with whom arrangements for the temporary provision of general medical services are made for the duration of those arrangements; and
(b) to the extent necessary to accommodate any additional patients temporarily assigned under sub-paragraph (a), the limitations contained in regulation 21 on the number of persons who may be on a doctor’s list shall not apply for the duration of those arrangements.
(17B) Where arrangements such as are referred to in paragraph (17A) are in force when a suspension by direction of the Tribunal ceases to have effect—
(a) in the case where the suspended doctor continues to be included in the medical list, the Board shall reassign to him all those patients temporarily assigned under paragraph (17A) who are still on the list of the doctor to whom they were so assigned; and
(b) in the case where he ceases to be included in the medical list the arrangements referred to in paragraph (17A) shall cease to have effect (without prejudice to any new arrangements which may be made under this regulation).