The Surgery has a duty of care to safely monitor patients medication, this includes High Risk Drugs (i.e. Methotrexate, Sulfasalazine and Octasa).

The majority of patient's will require regular blood tests and some may also need up to date height and weight readings. If we ask you to have a blood test done but you have recently had a blood test via the hospital, please let us know and we can download these results. We can then let you know if we require anything further. 

If a patient becomes non-compliant with this monitoring, the Practice will reduce the prescription quantity by half as per our high risk drug monitoring policy.

Some of the above medications are started by a Hospital Consultant and the prescribing of these medications can be taken over by the Practice under a 'Essential Shared Care Agreement' once the patient is on a stable dose for over 3 months. 

An Essential Shared Care Agreement is an agreement between the Practice, the Consultant and the Patient. This agreement is so that it is clear what monitoring is needed and who will monitor the medication. Patients will be asked to Sign the Essential Shared Care Agreement, so that they are aware of the monitoring requirments. Usually, the monitoring includes regular blood tests.

If patients do not comply with the monitoring, the Practice have the right to inform the Consultant and ask them to take over the prescribing until the patient is compliant again. 

Unfortunately, we will not enter into a Shared Care Agreement with any private clinic as per our practice policy.