ADHD shared care agreement with private clinics:

Please see below Woosehill Practice’s policy in respect to shared care with private clinics for ADHD treatment.

Sharing care with the private sector can carry higher risks than sharing care with the NHS and therefore decisions on this will be made on a case by case basis. The decision to share care, or not to, will be based on review of some of the following factors:

• The clinic must be registered with Care Quality Commission (CQC)
• Whether the consultant is on the appropriate GMC specialist register, a member of the relevant Royal College and based in the UK.
• Whether the consultant holds, or has held in the past, a substantive NHS consultant post in the same specialty as the one in which they are now practising privately.
• The prescribing clinician is responsible for checking the height, weight, blood pressure, pulse, cardiovascular system (and ECG if indicated) as set out by NICE guidelines(or organise alternative arrangements. The GP practice is unable to conduct any examination or blood test on behalf of the clinic)
• Regular monitoring and dose changes will be undertaken by the consultant. Patient has to be stable on the dose for at least 3 months before we take over prescribing.
• The prescribing will continue only as long as the patient remains under the care of the private clinic.
• Communication between us and the consultant – we would expect access to email communication for any queries, with prompt replies.
• The nature of the prescribing – shared care is more likely to be possible if the drug is one which is licensed for the indication, would be given by an NHS consultant and for which there are no significant NHS guidelines or reports that recommend against its use

We do not accept shared care with individual specialists.

All shared care arrangements are voluntary, so practices can decline shared care requests on clinical and capacity grounds. The responsibility for the patient’s care and ongoing prescribing then remains the responsibility of the private provider.