• Contact Us

Changes to the PMS/GMS Regulations in Relation to the Provision of Services During Pandemics 2020

on Friday, 17 April 2020.

On 1 April 2020, new legislation was passed, including amendments relating to the provision of primary care services during a pandemic.

Further to NHS England's letter to GPs on 27 March 2020 regarding preparedness for coronavirus (COVID-19) in general practice, new legislation was passed on 1 April 2020 to incorporate changes to the GMS Contracts/ PMS Agreements Regulations to reflect the requirements of the current crisis. A summary of these changes and further detail on the specific application of these changes has been provided by NHS England in their letter dated 14 April 2020.

These changes include:

  • allowing the commissioner to suspend specific terms during a pandemic. NHS England's letter of 14 April 2020 includes an annex setting out the specific terms practices can consider suspending if they need to free up capacity which include:
  • new patient reviews (including alcohol dependency)
  • over-75 health checks
  • annual patient reviews, including under QOF
  • routine medication reviews
  • clinical reviews of frailty
  • friends and Family Test (FFT)
  • engagement with and review of feedback from Patient Participation Groups (PPG)
  • dispensing list cleansing
  • temporarily amending the definition of 'core hours' so that it may include Good Friday and Easter Monday and May bank holidays.
  • increasing the minimum number of appointments that practices must make available for 111 direct booking (from the 14 April until 30 June 2020, all practices in England must make available a minimum of 1 appointment per 500 patients for direct booking from 111.

VWV is providing a range of support in respect of Coronavirus - please visit our Coronavirus portal for further information.


If you need any advice or assistance with respect to these changes please do not hesitate to contact a member of our Healthcare Law team, or complete the form below. 

Get in Touch

First name(*)
Please enter your first name.

Last name(*)
Invalid Input

Email address(*)
Please enter a valid email address

Telephone
Please insert your telephone number.

How would you like us to contact you?

Invalid Input

How can we help you?(*)
Please limit text to alphanumeric and the following special characters: £.%,'"?!£$%^&*()_-=+:;@#`

See our privacy page to find out how we use and protect your data.

Invalid Input