Clinicians within Practitioner Health Service may suggest prescribing medication as part of the care plan for the patient.

As mentioned in the Confidentiality section, in many cases a practitioner patient’s involvement with PH can be kept completely confidential and if the practitioner patient does not wish their GP to be involved or notified, this can be honoured.

If the decision is made by clinician and practitioner patient to initiate a medication, the involvement of the patient’s GP may need to be reconsidered. This is so that the GP might be able to take over the prescribing soon after the first month’s supply has been issued.

The aim of this is to promote the safety of the practitioner patient, avoiding contra-indications, interactions between medication or allergic reactions.

In exceptional circumstances, it can be agreed that PH continues the prescribing but these decisions must be discussed at the weekly Multi-Disciplinary Team meeting.