Shared Care Agreements

A shared care agreement (or SCA) is a written agreement between a patient, their general practitioner (GP), and a hospital consultant that allows for the sharing of care for a specific health condition. The agreement details the responsibilities of each party, including who is responsible for prescribing, monitoring, and early referrals.

A shared care agreement is usually made when a patient’s condition is stable or predictable, and with the patient’s agreement. The agreement allows the patient to continue taking their medicine from their GP, rather than having to visit the hospital.

Shared care agreements are typically developed for specialist drugs or medications that require ongoing monitoring, such as: ADHD medications, Specialist arthritis medications, Specialist skin medications, and Some specialist drugs with known side effects.

Shared care agreements are voluntary for GPs, and they are not required to enter into them.

Due to an increased demand for these requests, we have made the decision to temporarily cease taking over the prescribing of medicines that require a shared care agreement from private organisations. This change is necessary to ensure we can maintain our capacity to provide care to all of our patients. Shared Care Agreements that come from NHS or NHS-funded providers will continue to be accepted where clinically appropriate.

If you are currently receiving prescriptions from a private provider and do not have an agreed shared care arrangement in place with us, you will need to continue obtaining your prescription from your private service provider. Unfortunately, we will not be able to take over these prescriptions at this time.

Please note, that due to regularory concerns and advice from our local commissioners, we are unable to accept any advice or requests from GenderGP.