Private referrals and private treatment

Patients are free to seek private assessment or treatment at any time, and doing so does not affect your NHS care with us.

Requests that follow private care are considered in the same way as any other clinical request, and decisions are based on NHS guidance and clinical appropriateness rather than on what a private provider has recommended.

Where a private clinician recommends a specialist medicine, the practice does not take over prescribing or the monitoring that medicine requires. That responsibility stays with the provider that started the treatment. Please see our page on shared-care medicines for the full position.

Medicines that are routinely prescribed in NHS general practice can usually be continued in the normal way after a private consultation.