Abeyance and Dispersal GP Codes
Contains:
Usually, when a GP retires or leaves a practice, a successor is appointed prior to the departure of the
outgoing GP. In such cases, if the GP in question holds their own 'list' of patients on the Practice and
NHAIS systems, these are transferred to the new GP (referred to as the successor) using bulk
transfer processes. There are, however, two circumstances where this is not possible:
Where a successor has yet to be appointed, the NHAIS system currently offers the facility to set the
individual GP list to 'abeyance'. This leaves the patients technically registered with the departing GP
until a successor can be obtained. In practice, the patients are usually still treated by the remaining
partners in the practice, or sometimes a locum is employed temporarily by the practice. This process
ensures the practice list is still calculated appropriately for payment.
When a successor is not actively being sought, the NHAIS dispersal function is used; patients
registered with the GP are written to advising them to register with a new GP.
In order to ensure that NSTS and PDS are correct, it is necessary to set up Abeyance/Dispersal
codes; these take the form of GP Practitioner format codes which relate to a practice rather than an
individual GP, and ODS has responsibility for this.
