Personal medical services (PMS) agreements
September 2004
PMS is a locally-agreed alternative to General Medical Service (GMS) for providers of general practice. Legislation has allowed for PMS since 1997 (with the entry into force of the Primary Care Act) but it is only in recent years that the number of practices choosing PMS has grown rapidly. Now almost half of general practices have PMS agreements.
In Scotland, PMS practices are now called Section 17 c practices (a reference to the relevant section of the Primary Medical Services Act). They constitute around 10% of all GP practices in Scotland. There are no PMS practices in Wales and Northern Ireland.
The defining feature of PMS agreements is their local nature. Unlike GMS contracts, they are negotiated between the PCO and the practice, and are not subject to direct national negotiations between the Department of Health and the General Practitioners Committee of the BMA. Nevertheless, the new national GMS contract, which came into force on 1 April 2004, has had a strong impact on PMS policy and on the contents of PMS agreements. Moreover, the GPC is consulted, together with other organisations, on the development of PMS and provides valuable input to proposed legislative changes as well as on many other PMS-related matters.
This document is concerned mainly with how PMS has changed as a result of the new GMS contract. It is also intended as a general introduction to any practice considering entering into a PMS agreement.
Download the PMS agreement, 2004 here (115k)
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