What is shared care?
Shared care is when two doctors, usually a GP and a specialist, have a formalised agreement detailing how they will share the care of a patient. A shared care agreement is predominantly utilised to detail an agreement around issuing medication and monitoring the effect or possible side effects of this medication. Both parties (GP and Specialist Consultant) need to be in agreement of this arrangement for a shared care agreement to take place.
What is Mansfield Medical Centre’s stance on Shared Care agreements?
At Mansfield Medical Centre, we want to ensure that we have robust measures in place to ensure our patients are as safely managed as possible, including the issuing of medications. To have a safe and effective shared care in place, we need to make sure certain criteria and safety net processes are in place. Unfortunately, we concluded that these measures are not in place with some private providers and some NHS providers not working in secondary care. We have therefore made the decision to stop all current shared care agreements that are not with an NHS consultant in secondary care setting and not undertake any new shared care agreements with private or non-secondary care NHS providers.
If you feel that the medication you are taking, which is currently through a private provider or through a consultant not in a secondary care setting, but is something that would be able to be prescribed on the NHS and you would like a referral into the NHS please contact us through Patchs to discuss this further.
This is not a decision that we have taken lightly and do recognise that this may be frustrating to some of our patients, however the safety of our patients is paramount. There is a chance that another local GP surgery may still be allowing shared care agreements with private providers or consultants outside of a secondary care setting currently, however this may change, as shared care agreements are voluntary and can be stopped at any time due to clinical or capacity grounds.
We appreciate the difficult situation some patients may find themselves in and would encourage you to write to your local MP or ICB (Integrated Care Board) regarding the commissioning of local services in the NHS.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) medication – Shared Care Agreements – Private providers and Right to Choose Pathways.
We felt it particularly important to highlight the current situation regarding ADHD medication. There are many companies that are seeing patients not within the NHS secondary care setting (Right to choose). Unfortunately, due to the concerns highlighted above, we will not be currently undertaking shared care with providers through this pathway. It is important to note that we have been informed that the NHS ADHD (Neurodevelopmental service) in Coventry (UHCW) is not commissioned to see patients who have been diagnosed outside of the trust.
Therefore they will not see any patients for the follow up or initiation/titration of ADHD medication if they have not been diagnosed through the NHS pathway via UHCW.