Policy

The Practice will consider all requests for shared care agreements with third parties, including private providers.  The following outlines our policy on various aspects of shared care.

Specific examples where this policy would apply might include:

• Medication following private HRT / Menopause appointments
• Bariatric (weight-loss) surgery
• Private ADHD assessments
• Gender conditions and requesting hormones

Note, these are examples, this list is not exhaustive.

Medications & Prescribing

The Practice is able to provide medications on the NHS following a private consultation as long as this is in line with the approved licence for the medication and the medication would have been provided to an NHS patient in the same circumstances.

If the medication is not licensed for the use requested, or if the dose is greater than the recommended licensed dose, then the responsibility for prescribing this medication will remain with the patient’s private provider.  An alternative medication may sometimes be prescribed under the LLR Medicines formulary. Patients may choose to accept this substitution or return to their private provider for prescription of the original medication at the patient’s own cost.

Medication which would normally be prescribed under a shared care agreement will only be prescribed as long as the private provider agrees to participate in any shared care in the same way that local NHS providers would. If the patient fails to continue their care with the private provider/or the private provider ceases to trade, the shared care agreement becomes void and and we will no longer be able to prescribe the treatment.

All our Medicines management, including this policy, is in line with the Leicestershire Area Prescribing Committee guidance.

Tests

Where a private provider recommends tests (including blood tests or BP testing), before or after a consultation or medical intervention, the Practice will offer that testing only where the test would have been provided to an NHS patient by their GP in the same circumstances.

Where the Practice would not offer these tests to an NHS patient in the same circumstance, the patient will need to refer to their private provider to undertake any such test at the patient’s own cost.

Bariatric Surgery After Care

Bariatric surgery taken overseas will only be eligible for NHS follow-up care if NHS criteria have been met prior to referral (for example: having a BMI over 40, or a BMI over 35 and an obesity related health condition).  If you are considering surgery abroad, we strongly recommend patients source a provider for follow-up care before going ahead with the surgery, especially if you do not meet current NHS criteria for bariatric surgery.