An update on new Shared Care requests for ADHD and Gender patients from April 2025
A shared care drug is one that is initiated by a hospital consultant or specialist. The medication usually requires a period of stability and monitoring under the care of the hospital consultant or specialist before prescribing responsibility is transferred to the GP. However, for shared care to exist an agreement must be in place between all parties, and monitoring and specialist reviews must take place as per the agreement.
Shared Care Agreements are optional and have always been entered into at the GP practices’ discretion. Shared care prescribing is a non-core, voluntary activity that can be declined by the GP practice for any reason.
From April 2025 the local Integrated Care Board (BSW ICB) agreed to offer this as a Locally Commissioned Service: in effect, an incentive scheme to fund practices to provide this shared care work. Practices have been given the option to sign up to this work or not, as they choose. By funding this work for the first time, the ICB recognise the additional workload and training involved in supporting Shared Care Agreements.
As a practice, we are already operating at full capacity and cannot commit to the extra work, so have agreed not to sign up. Fulfilling Shared Care Agreements is not just a matter of signing a few prescriptions. Each non-core medication needs its own process around monitoring, prescribing, and education of the practice team. Furthermore, it comes with the requirement to carry our regular reviews of each patient. All of this takes time away from our core contracted activities.
This is not a decision we have taken lightly. We are still happy to refer to these specialist services in the usual way, whether to NHS or Private providers, or via an ICB-approved NHS Right to Choose provider. Once stablilised on medication, you will still be able to get your prescriptions and ongoing care from your specialist provider.
