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Joint Guidance with the optical bodies on the transition to new General Ophthalmic Services (GOS) contracts in England.

From 1 August 2008 the current system of being on a PCT list to provide GOS will be abolished and replaced with a new system of:

• contracts with PCTs for practices/businesses who provide GOS in their areas
• PCT ophthalmic performers lists for optometrists and OMPs who carry out GOS sight tests.

Download the full transition guidance as a pdf document using the link to the right.

Countdown to the Contract
There are important matters to complete during July. This note is designed to guide you through the main issues. It should be read in conjunction with our other guidance on our websites, and if you are in any doubt, you should seek specific advice from your representative body. (See contact details below)


Contractors (Providers)
The deadline for existing contractors to notify the PCT that they want to have a contract as a provider for mandatory service (GOS sight tests) and/or additional services (domiciliary sight tests) has passed. Applications had to be made by 30th June.

If you have not made an application you will have to apply for a new contract. If your PCT claims not to have received notification that you have sent requesting a new contract or if they are making difficulties because you did not notify them by 1 July, then you should talk to your representative body.

Some PCTs appear not to have understood that they did not need to have received any details apart from notification of a desire to have a contract or to have the contact signed by 1st July. The new contracts did not need to be in place by 1 July, rather they must all be in place for 1st August.

Performers
All those who are currently on a supplementary list should automatically be transferred to the new Performers List. However many PCTs appear to be confused about this, and it would be prudent to check with your PCT that they are making this transfer for you.

As a reminder, you can only be on one PCT’s Performers List, but that allows you to work in any PCT in England.

Those who have been acting as a “Grandfather” to an optical business will not need now to do so, but you must check that your PCT has remembered that you need to be transferred to the new Performers List.

PCTs cannot add requirements outside the Regulations

We have encountered some instances where PCTs either misunderstand the regulations, or are attempting to exceed them by adding their own requirements for contractors.
Examples we have come across are:

• requirements for protocols for auditing records
• requiring evidence of procedures for circulating guidance and legislation
• insisting that there should be a private area for patients to pass on their names and addresses - such a requirement would paralyse the GP, hospital and pharmacy services as we know them (not to mention libraries, post offices etc.)
• requiring full CVs for company directors under transitional arrangements - all they have to provide is any information missing under Schedule 3 which has not been supplied previously (CVs may only be requested in support of an application for a new contract).
• that there should be protocols for recruitment of appropriate staff to provide GOS - this is entirely a matter for the contractor.
• unreasonable implications that PCT deadlines (other than the national deadlines laid down in regulations) are obligatory
• forms and contracts being downloaded from the websites and sent to contractors with the wrong PCT details
• application forms for new contracts being sent in error to existing contractors who have a right to a contract under the transitional arrangements
• incomplete contracts (eg without footnotes; without Clauses 118 and 119 being deleted for NHS contracts) being sent to contractors to sign
• contractors not being asked to clarify whether they want an NHS or non-NHS contract
• new declarations being required from existing practitioners as a condition of transfer to the new ophthalmic performers list – this is quite wrong, transfer should be automatic
• adding a general requirement for enhanced CRB checks for practitioners transferring from supplementary to ophthalmic performers lists.

We have also come across cases of PCTs not understanding that, to provide domiciliary services a contractor needs an additional services contract with each PCT in which they plan to continue offering services.

Ophthalmic Medical Practitioners
Contracts & Pensions
Following the coming into force of the General Ophthalmic Services Contract Regulations 2008 on 1 August, the NHS Pension Scheme Regulations will need to be amended with effect from that date to reflect the change in law from “General Ophthalmic Services” (GOS) to “Primary Ophthalmic Services” (POS). However, this is the only change that will need to be made and entitlement to pension ophthalmic services activity will not be affected by this change.

An OMP may be awarded a contract under the new GOS regulations provided they meet the requirements, which are substantially the same as the requirements to be on the ophthalmic list were.

This means that an OMP who would have been able to be on the ophthalmic list and receive superannuable GOS income prior to the 1 August 2008 will remain able to do so after that date.

It is not of course and never has been every OMP who will fall within these parameters. It will depend on the circumstances of the doctor in question.

For further guidance , please contact your representative body and see further information on the pension section of the website.

Premises
There have also been questions about OMPs’ entitlement to be a contractor under the new regulations and in particular about leasing premises etc. It is difficult to be definitive and the facts will vary in each case.

The key question is whether the putative contractor is going to be running his/her own separate business and a crucial element of that is whether the contractor can meet the premises, equipment and record-keeping requirements. It may be that a lease or licence, which is specific on these matters, will enable the OMP to meet the requirements and therefore be able to have a GOS contract.

The issue becomes clearer with contracts but this has always been a requirement under the General Ophthalmic Services Regulations 1986, i.e. the requirements about providing premises, equipment and record keeping.

There is no space for front men (or grandfathers) in the legal structure and the person (individual or corporate) in contract with the NHS has to be actually providing the service. The grandfathering arrangements were always intended to be temporary and were specifically provided for in the 2005 Regulations. These will be superseded by the new regulations (which do not include grandfathering) on 1 August.

Download this countdown guidance as a pdf document using the link on the right




Contacts
Association of British
Dispensing Opticians
Katie Docker: Tel: 01227 733912
e-mail: kdocker@abdo.org.uk

Federation of Ophthalmic and Dispensing Opticians
Anne Fedrick: Tel: 020 7298 5151
e-mail: anne@fodo.com

Association of Optometrists
Richard Carswell: Tel: 020 7261 9661
e-mail: bobhughes@aop.org.uk

British Medical Association
David Algie: Tel: 020 7387 4499
e-mail: dalgie@bma.org.uk