Purpose

The purpose of this policy is to outline The Glen Medical Practice policy for requests from private providers to enter into shared care agreements for the prescriptions of medications which require monitoring.

This will allow the surgery, prescribers associated with the surgery and our patients to be clear on the surgery’s policy on this matter. This will maintain high standards of patient safety and quality and avoid distress to the patient.

Scope

This policy applies to all staff members involved in patient-care and decision making regarding the prescription of medications which involve sharing care with specialist teams.  This includes NHS Lanarkshire staff providing prescribing services on behalf of the practice.  The information is available to patients for information and transparency purposes.

Definitions

Shared Care Agreements are agreements that exist between a patient’s GP, their specialist team and a patient, to facilitate the prescription of specialist medications which require monitoring.

These include (but are not exclusive to) medications for gender care, ADHD medications, disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and immunosuppressant medications.  In the NHS, protocols exist both to ensure these shared care agreements are safe and to provide adequate resource to your general practice for the work involved.

Private Providers are any healthcare organisations or individuals who operate for profit and not part of our public health care system (the NHS.)

Why is This Policy Needed?

Quality of Care and Patient Safety

There has been an significant increase in patients seeking private health-care.  This has resulted in an increase in requests to share care from private providers.  This has led to an increase in patient safety concerns, examples of poor practice and potential for patient harm.  We therefore cannot presume that private providers can undertake a shared care agreement safely.

Equity in Healthcare

All patients at the Practice should have equal access to healthcare, independent of ability to pay or influence of private-profit motive.

Implications for Other Patients

Our Practice has a responsibility to ensure it meets the needs of all patients on the practice list.  As demand continues to rise, doing so within the budget allocated to us is increasingly difficult.

There is no mechanism by which private providers can resource the Practice for their part of the shared care agreement.

Policy Statement

The Glen Medical Practice does not engage in shared care arrangements with private providers.  This decision is based on the commitment to uphold our values of equity, access and quality of care for all patients.  We believe that collaboration with private providers may lead to inconsistencies in care delivery, potential conflicts of interest and increase therapeutic risk.