Shared Care and Right to Choose

Practice Policy

At SJMP we are committed to delivering safe and high-quality care in line with our clinical capacity and responsibilities as a primary care provider.

Right to Choose – What We Do Support

Under NHS Right to Choose, patients have the legal right to access mental health services or other specialist services from any NHS-commissioned provider in England, if referred by their GP.

We fully support patients in exercising their Right to Choose, and we will continue to make referrals to appropriate services of your choice upon request. However, if a provider accessed through Right to Choose recommends specialist medication, we will not take over prescribing, monitoring, or investigations related to that treatment.

The referring specialist team must retain responsibility for:

• Carrying out all necessary investigations as part of assessment and diagnosis.
• Initiating and undertaking continued monitoring tests required for treatment.
• Ongoing clinical responsibility if specialist prescribing is needed.

We Do Not Enter Into Any New Shared Care Agreements

What is a Shared Care Agreement?

A shared care agreement is a formal arrangement between you the patient, a specialist (usually secondary care) and a GP. The agreement outlines the roles and responsibilities of your GP, specialist, and you. Your GP is asked to take over the prescribing and monitoring of certain specialist medications once your condition is stable with you remaining under clinical review of the specialist.

This typically includes high risk specialist medicines, including but not limited to ADHD treatments, certain arthritis medications and certain inflammatory bowel disease treatments, which require specific monitoring and regular specialist review that fall outside standard primary care provision.

Due to the increasing complexity of these arrangements, specialist prescribing requirements, and capacity constraints, we do not accept any new shared care agreements. This includes:

• Taking over prescribing of specialist medications.
• Ongoing monitoring required for specialist medication.
• Clinical review of specialist medications.

In such cases, the specialist team initiating treatment will retain full clinical responsibility for prescribing and monitoring.

Questions?

If you have any questions about shared care or Right to Choose referrals, please speak to a member of our pharmacy team. We’re here to support your access to appropriate care while ensuring your safety within our scope of practice.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation. We remain dedicated to offering safe, high-quality care, and we appreciate your continued trust in us.