The National Health Service (Ophthalmic Services) (Wales) Regulations 2023

Alternative records arrangements

10.—(1) Where the circumstances in sub-paragraph (2) apply, a contractor may, instead of keeping the records required under paragraph 9, comply with the conditions set out in sub-paragraph (3).

(2) The circumstances referred to in sub-paragraph (1) are that a contractor—

(a) was included on the ophthalmic list of a Local Health Board on 31 January 2006,

(b) does not keep or no longer keeps records as required under paragraph 9, and

(c) is not employed, in relation to the primary ophthalmic services the contractor provides in the area of that Local Health Board, by another contractor.

(3) The conditions referred to in sub-paragraph (1) are that the contractor has—

(a) made legally enforceable arrangements that—

(i) a proper record in respect of each patient to whom the contractor provides primary ophthalmic services is kept,

(ii) all such records are kept for a period of 10 years after the date the patient was last seen or until the patient turns 25 years old, whichever is the later, and

(iii) during that period such records must be produced when and as required under paragraph 9(3),

(b) satisfied the Local Health Board’s requirements as to the keeping of records and that the arrangements are legally enforceable and require such production, and

(c) access to those records at all reasonable times.