Requests from Private Healthcare providers

Hedena health follows guidance from the British Medical Association (BMA) regarding requests from private healthcare providers:

• BMA: General practice responsibility in responding to private healthcare 

Tests requested by private providers

Patients who chose to pay for private healthcare are responsible for paying for all costs, including any tests that the private provider has recommended. Private and NHS care should be kept as separate as possible and NHS resources should never be used to subsidise the cost of private care. Doctors are responsible for any investigation they order. If a private provider has recommended tests to be done, they should be the ones to request them rather than the GP. 

Prescribing Medication requested by a private provider

GMC Good Medical Practice states that doctors should prescribe medication, only when they have “adequate knowledge of the patient’s health and are satisfied that the medication serves the patient’s needs."

If your GP does not feel competent to prescribe a particular medication or if they don’t know if it best serves your needs, they reserve the right to reject requests from private providers to prescribe medication. In these circumstances the GP will recommend that the private provider prescribes the medication.

This will certainly be the case if the medications are black-listed or specialist only according to the Oxfordshire prescribing formulary. Private specialists can refer patients to secondary care doctors in the NHS if these types of medication are required on an ongoing basis. 

Shared care with private providers

Sometimes the care of a patient is shared between two doctors, usually a GP and a specialist, and there is a formalised written ‘shared care agreement’ setting out the position of each, to which both parties have willingly agreed. Where these arrangements are in place, GP providers can arrange the prescriptions and appropriate investigations, and the results are fully dealt with by clinicians with the necessary competence under the shared care arrangement.

Shared Care with private providers is not recommended due to the general NHS constitution principle of keeping as clear a separation as possible between private and NHS care. All shared care arrangements are voluntary, so even where agreements are in place, GPs 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.

Please read our page on shared care prescribing requests from private providers for ADHD/ASD medications.

Caring for patients who have had private treatment abroad

If a patient would usually receive follow up in general practice for the problem they have received treatment for abroad, care can be transferred from private to NHS. 

However, if follow up is of a specialist nature, or not within normal general practice remit, patients should be referred to an alternative service such as secondary care. Whilst the patient is waiting for their treatment to be reviewed by this service they should ask the private provider abroad to continue to prescribe their medication or seek a private service locally to take over prescribing.