Shared Care and Right to Choose

At The Forest Surgery, 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.

 

ADHD Assessment Waiting Well Support Resources

We understand that waiting times for ADHD assessments and diagnoses can be lengthy. You do not need to wait until you have been seen by the ADHD clinic to make changes that may help your symptoms.  These changes may help regardless of whether you achieve an ADHD diagnosis.

UK-based support resources:

Additionally, the NELFT ADHD service has recommended the following books, which may be useful:

  • Driven to Distraction by Edward M. Hallowell and John J. Ratey – A comprehensive guide to understanding and managing ADHD.
  • You Mean I’m Not Lazy, Stupid or Crazy?! by Kate Kelly and Peggy Ramundo – Offers practical advice and support for adults with ADHD.
  • Scattered Minds by Gabor Maté – Explores the origins and healing of ADHD.
  • Living With Adult ADHD by Bernadette Ashton – Provides strategies for embracing life with ADHD.

Additional Information

KLINIK

Health watch and Citizens panel

NHS Data Sharing

Non-NHS Services

Patient Participation Group

Patient Satisfaction Survey

Practice Charter

Shared Care and Right to Choose