Skip to main content

Publication, Part of

General Ophthalmic services workforce statistics - 31 December 2019

Publication Date:
5 Mar 2020
Geographic Coverage:
England, Wales
Date Range:
31 Dec 2009 to 31 Dec 2019

Previous Chapter

Methodology

Current Chapter

Annex 1 – Regulations

View all

Next Chapter

Author, Copyright and Licensing
Page contents

Annex 1 – Regulations

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 (England only)

  1. The White Paper, Equity and Excellence: Liberating the NHS outlined the Government’s vision for health services. It described the new commissioning architecture for the NHS implemented by the Health and Social Care Act 2012.

  2. The legislative framework in England is set out in the NHS (Performers Lists) (England) Regulations 2004. These initially came into effect on 1 April 2004 and provided a framework for managing, medical, dental and ophthalmic performers undertaking clinical services. The NHS (Performers Lists) (England) Regulations 2013 replaced the 2004 Performers List Regulations.
  3. The NHS (Performers Lists) (England) Regulations 2013 entrusted the responsibility for managing national performers lists (medical, dental and ophthalmic) to NHS England as the commissioner of primary care services, replacing the previous system of local performers lists.
  4. The change to a national list system has been informed by the Performers List Review, the GP Out-of-Hours Service Review, the NHS Performers List Regulations 2013 consultation, the Medical Profession (Responsible Officer) Regulations 2010 and the role of responsible officer consultation.
  5. Medical, dental and ophthalmic performers may not perform NHS primary care services in England unless they are included on a national performers list held by NHS England. NHS England has powers to manage admission, suspension and removal from these lists. There are policy and standard operating procedures for governing the inclusion, movement and maintenance of medical, dental and ophthalmic performers in NHS England’s national primary care performers lists.

Regulations from August 2008 (England only)

  1. Regulations were introduced in England on 1 August 2008. These regulations were not adopted by Wales.

  2. Under the regulations introduced on 1 August 2008 the Ophthalmic List (OL) and the Supplementary List (SOL) were replaced by a contractual regime for providers and a Performers List arrangement for clinicians. A Performers List records all ophthalmic practitioners authorised by NHS England, formerly PCTs, to perform NHS sight tests. Each region maintains a Performers List and a practitioner can only be recorded on one Performers List, but by being recorded on that list is authorised to perform NHS sight tests anywhere in England.
  3. The Central Ophthalmic Payments System contains validations to ensure that the same practitioner cannot be entered onto the system more than once. However, this validation rule was only introduced following the creation of the Performers Lists, which was created by merging the records of the previous OL and SOL. PCTs were then asked to validate the Performers List and remove records that were no longer contracted by the organisation.
  4. Due to the method in which the original Performers Lists were created, and that some organisations submitted manual returns, data collected by NHS Digital contained duplicates. These were removed during the validation process by keeping the record with the latest start date recorded on the system.
  5. A practitioner would normally be recorded on the Performers List of the region where they performed most of their work. To maintain these lists, for example when practitioners move regions, the former region must remove the practitioner from their list, before they can be added to the list of the new region.
  6. Where NHS England regions determine that a practitioner has not provided General Ophthalmic Services during the preceding six-month period in its locality, they may be removed from its lists. Removing inactive practitioners is through an agreement between NHS England and the practitioner.

GOS Regulations 2005 (Wales, February 2006 onwards; England, April 2005 to August 2008)

  1. In order to carry out an NHS sight test, an ophthalmic practitioner must be registered on a Primary Care Trust/Local Health Board (organisation) list. Under the GOS regulations 2005 two types of lists are maintained; the Ophthalmic Lists (OL) and the Supplementary Lists (SOL).
  2. Contractors are recorded on the OL for each organisation in which they provide GOS services, and so can appear more than once on the OL, although the contractor will only be counted once in the national figures in this report.
  3. Practitioners assisting in the provision of GOS are required to be recorded on the SOL with an organisation and can only appear on the SOL of one organisation at a time within each country. However, by being recorded on one SOL, a practitioner can undertake NHS sight tests anywhere in the country.
  4. Where an organisation determines in accordance with the regulations that a practitioner has not, during the preceding six-month period provided General Ophthalmic Services for persons in its locality, they may remove that name from its lists. The procedure for removing inactive practitioners from both lists is through an agreement between the organisation and the practitioner.
  5. An ophthalmic practitioner may hold a contract with more than one organisation and is required to be recorded on the OL for all such organisations they hold a contract with. Practitioners holding contracts in more than one organisation would only be counted once in the national figures in this report. They would be counted for each organisation where they held a contract in the local level data. A practitioner holding a contract in both England and Wales would be counted in the national totals for each country.  
  6. A practitioner cannot be recorded on both the OL and the SOL within a country.
  7. The data received from organisations contains duplicates. NHS Digital validation removes duplicates and ensures that the regulations are followed.
  8. Where a practitioner is recorded on more than one SOL, the record with the latest start date is kept as the record to be analysed. This will not impact on the national figures, as duplicates are removed when the totals are calculated, but will have an impact on the information at a local level.  

Last edited: 7 March 2024 5:27 pm

Previous Chapter

Methodology

Next Chapter

Author, Copyright and Licensing