At Thurleigh Road Practice, we are grateful to receive the support of our private consultant colleagues in the ongoing management of our patients.

As a result, we receive a large volume of requests for private prescriptions to be converted to NHS ones.

Whenever a GP prescribes something for you, they are taking full responsibility for this even if the medication has been recommended by another doctor. Therefore all such prescriptions requested will be reviewed by a GP and where possible and appropriate, will be turned around in 2 working days from receipt.

However there are some medications which, for safety and monitoring reasons should only be started by a consultant. Some examples can be found in the list below however this list is not exhaustive and all medication requests will be assessed on an individual basis:

• Medication for ADHD
• Lithium
• Bupropion
• Methotrexate
• Hydroxychloroquine
• Mycophenolate

When a patient is stable on such medications, it may be possible for us as your GPs to take over the prescribing responsibility but only after discussion and written agreement with the responsible consultant.

We will always try and accommodate all prescription requests that we receive however there may still be some instances where we as your GPs may not agree to prescribe a certain medication. Such instances include:

• If the GP does not feel that they have significant expertise to safely prescribe such a specialist drug
• There has not been enough communication from the private doctor about the rationale behind using such medication
• The use of such medicine is not in line with local or national guidance
• If a medication if not licensed for use for that specific condition/diagnosis or is not licensed in the UK

We thank you for your understanding.