At Abbey Medical Practice, we are committed to providing comprehensive and equitable healthcare to all our patients. With this guiding principle in mind, we have recently undertaken a review of our policies regarding shared care arrangements.
What is shared care? Shared care is requested by specialist, ‘hospital’ or ‘secondary care’ clinician. It has been used to conveniently deliver medicines and complete associated monitoring by GP practices under the guidance of secondary care specialists. When formal assessment, diagnosis and any medical titration (slow increase in dosing to achieve stabilisation) has been achieved, some secondary care specialists ask if we can help them deliver their care through shared care. Once this has been formally agreed, this would form a contract between the specialist, the GP and the patient, and confirms ongoing, frequent monitoring and medication review at regular intervals. This happens with a multitude of NHS specialties including (but not limited to) Rheumatology, ADHD and Gender Dysphoria. Shared Care is OPTIONAL. There is no obligation for GPs to have to agree to Shared Care Agreements. Central to our updated policy is the understanding that equitable access to safe care is paramount. We agree to continue accepting share care for patients who have been assessed and stabilised by an NHS clinic. We have made the decision NOT to enter into new shared care agreements with Private providers.
Shared Care with private providers is not recommended due to the general NHS constitution principle of keeping as clear a separation as possible between private and NHS care. Shared Care is currently set up as an NHS service, and entering a shared care arrangement may have implications around governance and quality assurance as well as promoting health inequalities. A private patient seeking access to shared care should therefore have their care completely transferred to the NHS.