From 1st July 2024, St Gabriel’s Medical Centre will no longer agree to Shared Care Agreements with private providers.
As a practice, we have carefully considered these requests and unfortunately, we cannot support the prescribing and monitoring of medications from private clinics.
There are several reasons for this:
- General practice does not currently have the capacity to meet this additional demand from the private sector
- It is challenging for us to be assured of the quality and governance aspects of private clinics
- General practice does not currently have the capacity to meet this additional demand from the private sector
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 into a shared care arrangement may have implications around governance and quality assurance as well as promoting health inequalities. All shared care arrangements are voluntary, so even where agreements are in place, practices can decline shared care requests on clinical and capacity grounds. The responsibility for the patient’s care and ongoing prescribing then remains the responsibility of the private provider.