Shared Care Agreement Policy at Park Medical Practice
Shared care agreements (SCAs) are written arrangements between a GP and a specialist that allow for the shared responsibility of prescribing and monitoring a patient’s medication. While SCAs are common within the NHS between GPs and hospital specialists, entering SCAs with private providers can be more complex and has been discouraged by the British Medical Association due to potential issues with governance, quality assurance, and maintaining a clear separation between private and NHS care.
It is our practice policy that a shared care agreement for any medication will only be agreed with an NHS provider. The practice will agree to monitor and issue the medication(s) if the patient has a follow up every 12 months with that NHS provider. If we do not receive a clinical letter advising of that review, we reserve the right to refuse issuing medication until we receive that.
Should the patient request the “right to choose” option they can be referred to a private provider who takes part in “right to choose” this is still classed as an NHS referral as they are commissioned by the NHS, and shared care will be agreed as long as there are 12 monthly reviews with the patient and provider.
PLEASE NOTE – if the funding is decommissioned for that service provider in the future, you will be classed as not being under shared care and unless your care from that provider is transferred to another NHS provider the practice will not continue to issue medication.
Kind Regards
Park Medical Practice Management Team.