Table 2.

Eligibility for primary care ‘essential services’ under the 2004 General Medical Services Contract (from [19])

Type of essential service	Eligibility for treatment
Immediate and necessary emergency treatment	‘Any person to whom the contractor has been requested to provide treatment... at any place in its practice area’ [reg.15 (6)]
Management of terminal illness	Registered patients and temporary residents
Treatment of conditions from which recovery is generally expected	Registered patients and temporary residents
Treatment of chronic disease	Registered patients and temporary residents
Advice in connection with the patient’s health, including relevant health promotion advice	Registered patients and temporary residents
Referral of the patient for other services under the 1977 Act	Registered patients and temporary residents
Home visits	Where contractor considers it inappropriate, because of a patient’s medical condition, for the patient to attend the practice premises
Annual health checks	Patients aged over 75 years
	Patients not seen within 3 years; newly registered patients