34.—(1) Before the Health Board may assign a new patient to a contractor, it must, subject to sub-paragraph (3), enter into discussions with that contractor regarding additional support that the Health Board can offer the contractor, and the Health Board must use its best endeavours to provide appropriate support.
(2) In the discussions referred to in sub-paragraph (1), both parties must use reasonable endeavours to reach agreement.
(3) The requirement in sub-paragraph (1) to enter into discussions applies—
(a)to the first assignment of a patient to a particular contractor; and
(b)to any subsequent assignment to that contractor to the extent that it is reasonable and appropriate having regard to the numbers of patients who have been or may be assigned to it and the period of time since the last discussions under sub-paragraph (1) took place.