Shared Care Prescribing Policy

A Shared Care Agreement (SCA) is an agreement between you, your GP practice, and your hospital consultant or specialist doctor, to allow for the ongoing prescribing and monitoring of certain medications to be shared between hospital and primary care. These are voluntary, non-contractual arrangements that fall outside core NHS GP funding and contractual obligations.

GPs may agree to participate in shared care where specialist input and clinical responsibility are clearly defined and safe monitoring arrangements are in place; as along as sufficient resources and capacity are available to support the additional workload safely.

However, shared care demands significant resources, monitoring infrastructure, and clinical accountability not resourced under the GP contract and over recent years, we have seen a significant increase in requests. Unfortunately, the ongoing demand is no longer sustainable without dedicated support, and we have a duty to protect our capacity to provide safe and effective care for all our patients.

After careful consideration, we have therefore taken the difficult decision that effective from 1st September 2025, we will no longer be accepting any new requests for Shared Care Agreements, and will also begin phasing out existing agreements, except for limited circumstances where a locally commissioned service is in place, and the agreement aligns with local prescribing guidelines. At present, this only applies to:

·        High-risk medications such as methotrexate, where a monitoring service is commissioned;

·        Children and young people under the Surrey and Borders (Mindworks) ADHD service, where shared care is supported by local arrangements.

If you are currently receiving medication under a Shared Care Agreement with us, or if you have recently registered with us with an agreement with your previous practice in place, you and your specialist team will be notified in advance if this arrangement cannot continue. In such cases, we will provide a minimum of three months’ notice to ensure there is no immediate disruption to your treatment, after which prescribing and monitoring will need to return to your hospital consultant or specialist team.

We understand that changes to your care may be concerning but please be assured that any decision we make is guided by the need to provide safe, high-quality care that is sustainable for all our patients. 

If you have questions about your medication or ongoing treatment, we encourage you to contact your specialist team in the first instance.