National Health Service Act 1952
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Citation | 1952 c. 25 |
| Year | 1952 |
National Health Service Act , 1952
(15 & 16 Geo. 6 & 1 Eliz. 2) CHAPTER 25
An Act to make further provision with respect to the making and recovery of charges in respect of services provided under the National Health Service Act, 1946 and the National Health Service (Scotland) Act, 1947; and for purposes connected therewith.
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 Charges for certain drugs, medicines and appliances.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, regulations may provide for the making and recovery, in such manner as may be prescribed, of such charges as may be prescribed in respect of the supply, as part of the hospital and specialist services under Part II of the principal Act, of drugs, medicines or appliances.
(2) No charge shall be made under this section in respect of—
(a ) the supply of any drug, medicine or appliance for a patient who is for the time being resident in a hospital;
(b ) the supply of any drug or medicine for the treatment of venereal disease;
(c ) the supply of any appliance for a person who is under sixteen years of age or is undergoing full time instruction in a school within the meaning of the Education Act, 1944, or the Education (Scotland) Act, 1946; or
(d ) the replacement or repair of any appliance in consequence of a defect in the appliance as supplied;
and regulations may provide for the remission or repayment of any charge payable thereunder in such other cases as may be prescribed.
(3) Any reference in this section to the supply of appliances shall be construed as including a reference to the replacement and repair of appliances.
2 Charges for dental treatment.
(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, a charge of the amount authorised by this section may be made and recovered, in such manner as may be prescribed, in respect of any services provided as part of the general dental services under Part IV of the principal Act, not being—
(a ) the supply or replacement of appliances described in the Schedule to the National Health Service Act, 1951;
(b ) the repair of appliances other than prescribed appliances;
(c ) the arresting of bleeding; or
(d ) the clinical examination of a patient and any report thereon.
(2) The amount of the charge payable under this section in respect of services provided in pursuance of any contract or arrangement shall be the current authorised fee for all services so provided in respect of which a charge is payable under this section, or one pound, whichever is the less; but where any services in respect of which a charge is payable under the National Health Service Act, 1951, are provided in pursuance of the contract or arrangement, the charges payable under this section and under that Act in respect of all services provided in pursuance of the contract or arrangement shall not exceed four pounds five shillings in the aggregate.
(3) No charge shall be made under this section in respect of any services provided in pursuance of a contract or arrangement under which the first examination took place before the commencement of this Act.
(4) No charge shall be made under this section in respect of services (other than the re-lining of dentures or the addition of teeth, bands or wires to dentures) provided for any person who, on the date of the contract or arrangement for the services—
(a ) is under twenty-one years of age; or
(b ) is an expectant mother or has borne a child within the previous twelve months,
if (in any such case) a declaration to that effect is made by or on behalf of that person in such form and manner as may be prescribed.
(5) In this section ‘current authorised fee’, in relation to any services, means the fee authorised in accordance with regulations for the time being in force under the principal Act as the fee payable to the practitioner in respect of those services but does not include—
(a ) any fee authorised as aforesaid in respect of a visit to a patient by a practitioner;
(b ) any fee or part of a fee payable by the patient in pursuance of regulations made under section forty-four of the National Health Service Act, 1946, or section forty-five of the National Health Service (Scotland) Act, 1947.
3 Power to vary or abolish certain charges.
(1) Her Majesty may by Order in Council lessen the amount or maximum amount of any charge authorised by the National Health Service Act, 1951 or section two of this Act, or direct that any such charge shall cease to be payable.
(2) Any Order in Council under this section may be revoked or varied by a subsequent Order in Council thereunder.
(3) A statutory instrument containing an Order in Council under this section shall be subject to annulment in pursuance of a resolution of either House of Parliament.
(4) Section two of the National Health Service Act, 1951 (which enables Her Majesty by Order in Council to amend the Schedule to that Act) and section five of that Act (which provides for the expiration of certain provisions of that Act) shall cease to have effect.
4 Power to remit charges for dentures supplied by teaching hospitals.
(1) If the Minister of Health or the Secretary of State, as the case may be, is satisfied, after consultation with the university associated with any hospital...
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