Private Shared Care Prescribing Policy

We understand that some of our patients choose to access private healthcare alongside their NHS care. While we respect this choice, it is important to explain our practice policy regarding private shared care prescribing.

Why we cannot accept private shared care prescribing

General Practice is contracted to deliver NHS care. Shared care prescribing requires formal agreements, governance structures, and ongoing clinical monitoring. These arrangements exist within the NHS, where responsibilities between specialists and GPs are clearly defined and supported.

When prescribing is initiated by a private provider, we are unable to take on shared care responsibilities for the following reasons:

• We cannot be assured of the quality and clinical governance of private providers.
• Ongoing care depends on patients continuing to self-fund, which is not guaranteed.
• Accepting these requests risks creating a two-tier system, giving faster access to treatment for those able to pay privately.
• General Practice does not have the capacity to manage additional private sector workload.
• Shared care with private providers is not funded and sits outside our NHS contractual obligations.