Folder Shared Care Medicines
The General Medical Council Good Medical Practice states ‘prescribe drugs or treatment, including repeat prescriptions, only when you have adequate knowledge of the patient’s health, and are satisfied that the drugs or treatment serve the patient’s needs.
It also says provide effective treatments based on the best available evidence’. By prescribing a medication a GP is taking clinical responsibility.
What is the yellow list?
The Yellow list contains only those medicines and indications which have been agreed by the Stakeholders/ Locality/ MMPB for inclusion in the Blood Monitoring Service for Specialised Drugs SLA. These medicines must be initiated by Specialists, and then considered suitable for GPs to continue prescribing, with their agreement.
This is referred to as 'shared care' as both the Specialist and GP retain certain clinical responsibilities. For list of medicines see below.
Shared care guidelines are used to assist with the prescribing of these medicines and must be adhered to. In many circumstances the provider will retain prescribing and clinical responsibilities (if proven beneficial) for the agreed amount of time specified in the shared care guideline or until the GP has agreed to continue to prescribe and take on appropriate responsibilities.
If either clinician does not fulfil their responsibilities the prescribing should revert to the initiator of the medicines.
Some medicines are on both hospital only (RED) and shared care list (YELLOW) depending on the condition they are being used to treat.
Specialist initiated medicines without shared care guidelines will not be included on this list. If the specialist requests the GP to continue prescribing the specialist should provide the GP with sufficient information to assist them in reaching a decision to prescribe, see GMC guidance.
The following link to the yellow list decision aid is designed to help GP's when presented with a request for Shared Care:
The following link to the Community Pharmacists FAQs on Shared Care Medicines is a resource to help Community Pharmacists:
The following links provide Shared Care Guidelines for neighbouring areas:
Addenbrookes Shared Care Guidelines
Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust
Mid Essex CCG Medicines Management Team Shared Care Guidelines
City and Hackney CCG Shared Care Guidelines
North Central London Shared Care Guidelines
Please see below West Essex Shared Care Guidelines