Important Information

Shared Care Agreements

A shared care agreement is a formal arrangement where responsibility for a patient’s medication is shared between a specialist consultant and a GP.

Share care agreements are used for specialist medications examples include disease modifying drugs, some hormone therapies, and ADHD medications.

Tavyside Health Centre considers all shared care requests from locally commissioned NHS providers.

Tavyside Health Centre will no longer be entering into new shared care agreements with private and independent providers.

What this means for patients:

Existing agreements: Patients currently under private shared care arrangements will continue to receive care as per their existing agreement until further notice

New requests: We will no longer accept new requests from private or independent providers for shared care agreements. Patients seeking such arrangements will need to explore alternative options and may wish to consider:

· Fully private treatment through their specialist

· Discussing NHS referral options with their GP

This decision has been made to ensure equitable access to services and to maintain high standards of prescribing safety and monitoring for our patients, it is in line with the guidance from NHS Devon and the BMA. Mixed funding (Private and NHS) Shared Care requests – One Devon

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BMA Collective Action

Following the recent BMA ballot which you may have heard about in the press, we are writing to explain what this means for you and the future of General Practice. 

GPs have for years been doing work that is not funded and not contracted due to gaps in commissioned services and pressures in secondary care services; they have been doing so out of concern for their patients and to ensure that you continue to receive the care you deserve. However, with chronic underfunding and increased demand it is no longer sustainable for GPs to continue working in this way. 

Since 2015 we have seen 1600 Practices close or merge, there are 6 million more registered patients and 2000 fewer full time equivalent GPs across the country. Our funding levels are significantly lower than 2018 levels. This means we will be focussing on the safety and stability of our service going forwards.

Collective action is about working legitimately within our contracts. You may have heard this referred to in the press as industrial action; this is factually incorrect.  We will not be doing anything that compromises your safety, and we will not currently be going on strike.

We hope you understand that we are taking this action to ensure that general practice locally, in Devon and across England is there for our patients in years to come, and hope for your forbearance. 

BMA Collective Action Read More »