Some patients may choose to see a private consultant for their care or have been referred to a private clinic under the right to choose pathway, if this applies to you please see the information below.

Obtaining medication from your NHS GP after your private specialist has started you on them

If your specialist has started you on a medication and titrated you so that you are on a stable dose for at least 3 months, they can request the we take over prescribing. They need to send us a full clinic letter, signed by a General Medical Council (GMC( registered doctor from a Care Quality Commission (CQC) registered provider and a shared care agreement that includes the following:

• Your diagnosis
• The name and dosage of the medication
• The reasons for treatment
• How long the treatment is intended for
• What monitoring is required from us and who will interpret any results
• A place for us to sign if we agree

Your specialist remains responsible for your annual review and any medication reviews that may be needed along the way.

Whilst we will review all requests for shared care, not all will be agreed. If we feel we need more information from your specialist, we may ask you to request further information from them. All requests for shared care are reviewed on a case by case basis and we do have to reject some sometimes; requests for shared care will only be rejected if we feel that we can’t safely take over prescribing medication for you.

Some medications are not licensed for NHS GP’s to prescribe, if this is the case we will inform you and you’ll need to continue to obtain your medication from your specialist.

What happens when we receive the Shared Care Agreement?

The GP will be allocated time to review the request for shared care to see if we can take over prescribing.

Yourself and your specialist will be informed of the date that the GP has been allocated time to review it, you’ll be informed to obtain your medication from your private provider in the meantime.

If we agree to take over prescribing, we’ll send the signed agreement back to your specialist and add the medication to your repeat medications, you’ll then be able to request them as you need them through the NHS app.

If we decide that it is not safe to take over prescribing the medication through NHS services, we will inform you and your specialist and you’ll need to continue to obtain your prescription from them.

What happens if you need to transfer your care back to the NHS?

Your specialist should write to us to request that we take over your care. We’ll then contact the NHS service to let them know you are coming back onto their case load; due to NHS waiting times you may need to continue obtaining your prescriptions from the private clinic until you are accepted under NHS care.

Please note we will need your full diagnostic assessment and any following clinical letters in order to refer you into the NHS service, this needs to be from a registered psychiatrist.