Optometrist Jane Fisher, founder of the Eye Bus mobile practice (News 24.10.10), has succeeded in her appeal against Dorset Primary Care Trust's rejection of her application for a GOS mandatory services contract.
The original application was to provide a mobile ophthalmic service by means of the specially equipped minibus to cater for patients who experience difficulty or inconvenience travelling from rural locations to high street practices.
The basis of the PCT's decision was that it did not believe it could award a contract to Fisher in the absence of fixed premises from which her contract would be carried out as her application didn't fit 'within the definition given in the regulatory framework'. In a letter to Fisher informing her of the rejection, the PCT stated: 'For a mandatory contract the services to be provided are at a contractor's practice premises. The panel determines that by inference this means a fixed premises. The Eye Bus concept falls outside the definition of a fixed premises.'
After Fisher raised the matter with the PCT's disputes panel, which met with her on October 12, 2010, she received a letter stating that the PCT did not feel that her evidence was sufficiently compelling to grant her a mandatory contract.
As a result Fisher appealed to the Family Health Services Appeals Authority on the grounds that the provision of mandatory services in the bus were within the scope of a contract permitted by the regulations. She also stated that the PCT had failed to give due regard to the need to encourage the participation of disabled people in public life. At an appeal at Salisbury Law Courts on April 27, the tribunal decided that the Eye Bus constituted 'premises' for the purpose of GOS regulation 4(k).
A spokesperson from NHS Dorset told Optician: 'As a result of this ruling, which has provided clarity on how the regulations should be interpreted, we will reconsider Mrs Fisher's application to enter into an agreement with NHS Dorset to provide optometry services from her Eye Bus.'