“Shared care” is a process whereby responsibility for a patient’s medication is shared between a GP and consultant. This is often because the medication is one which a GP is unable to start or where the condition requires regular monitoring and follow-up within a specialist clinic.
In such a situation, the consultant will assess a patient’s suitability for the medication, perform any necessary baseline investigations and counsel the patient fully on the medication, before prescribing the medication and adjusting the dose until the patient is stable.
Once the patient is stable, the consultant then writes to the GP to ask them to consider shared care.
If the GP accepts, they then take over the prescribing and monitoring of the patient, notifying the consultant should any problems arise. The patient must remain under the care of the consultant. For shared care to be valid, there must also be a written agreement on the duties and responsibilities of each party.
The whole process of shared care is to facilitate appropriate clinical oversight and to maintain patient safety, all in the patient’s best interests.
It must be noted that shared care is entirely voluntary for GPs, and GPs are NOT obliged to enter into shared care, for whatever reason. The reasons for not entering into shared care would usually be because the above rules have not been followed or because the workload caused by the particular shared care agreement would be disproportionately onerous.
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