ADHD is a condition that needs to be diagnosed by a consultant psychiatrist and therefore we would need to refer all cases for this. Medication is one way to help those with ADHD and this is a specialised medication that needs to be started by a consultant as well. Once a patient is stable on a certain dose of the medication and all safety checks have been made, there is the option of the consultant then asking us to prescribe the medication ongoing – this is called ‘shared care’ – we share your care here at the GP and with the consultant.
Currently at Oldwell we are only accepting shared care with the local NHS trust called CNTW. We are not accepting any shared care agreements with any private providers. The reason for this is that we need to ensure that all the safety checks have been made during the initial prescribing, but also that the condition is being followed up by the psychiatry team i.e. they are taking on their responsibility as part of the shared care. With private providers we can’t be sure this process is taking place and recently we have had to remind them of their responsibilities.
Therefore if you want to consider medication for suspected ADHD we suggest you are referred to CNTW and wait to be assessed by them. There is a process called ‘right to choose’ where you can be assessed by any provider in the UK. This has been used to try reducing the waiting times to be seen. However this often ends up to be a private provider on behalf of the NHS and the same issue applies above with prescribing medication.
If you are looking for a diagnosis only then the above does not affect you and accessing right to choose may be a quicker way to be assessed.
Whilst we would like to see the waiting lists being reduced we are under no obligation to accept any shared care.