General Practitioners (Hansard, 13 February 2004)

§ Dr. Murrison
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the procedure is for transferring general practitioner held records when a patient moves practices. [153750]

§ Mr. Hutton
When a patient registers with a new general practitioner, the doctor will request the transfer of medical records via the primary care trust.

§ Dr. Murrison
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what investigation he has made of delays in transferring general practitioner records when a patient moves. [153794]

§ Mr. Hutton
A survey conducted by the Department in 1997 showed that, on average, 85 per cent. of medical records were transferred within the timescale guidance issued by the Department. These targets are six weeks for routine cases and two working days for urgent cases.

§ Mr. Burstow
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the arrangements are for(a) setting, (b) regulating, (c) monitoring and (d) reporting on performance and clinical governance standards for (i) private agencies and (ii) NHS organisations providing out-of-hours GP services. [152742]

§ Mr. Hutton
At present, all organisations providing out of hours—both private and not-for-profit—have to meet nationally set quality standards and report to primary care trusts (PCTs) on performance, including clinical governance.
Under the new general medical services (GMS) contract, anyone who provides services out of hours, including individuals contracted by the PCT, and organisations, will need to meet national quality standards. These standards are currently under review by an expert group to make them an integral part of GMS and personal medical services contracting. Strategic health authorities will performance manage PCTs in their delivery of out of hours services.

§ Mr. Burstow
To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many general practitioners recruited through flexible career schemes were working as locums in the NHS before joining the scheme. [153110]

§ Mr. Hutton
The most recent data available is from the June 2003 census, which showed that, of the 85 general practitioners who were counted as flexible career scheme doctors, 25 had last been counted in the census as a locum.