ADHD Policy 

Practice policy on requests to prescribe stimulant medication with shared care from private ADHD clinics and ‘right to choose’ providers

If you are wondering if you have ADHD, we can refer you for an assessment via any of the below 3 pathways:

• NHS local mental health team (Please be aware the current wait time for NHS locally is over 2 years)
• NHS ‘right to choose’ 
• A Private referral

As part of this referral process please see below our practice policy on the ‘shared care’ of ADHD stimulant medication:

In order for medication to be safely prescribed for ADHD, you need to be under the care of a consultant psychiatrist and your GP. This is known as ‘shared care’.

We will enter into shared care with our local mental health team, and prescribe medication initiated by them, once you are stable on a suitable dose. 

In order to share care with a private or ‘right to choose’ clinics and prescribe medication, we require that the diagnosis of ADHD is made by a consultant psychiatrist based in the UK who specialises in ADHD. This means that your actual assessment must be conducted by a consultant psychiatrist, not where there is a consultant psychiatrist overseeing assessments made by other professionals.  

If you opt to have your ADHD assessment through the NHS ‘right to choose’ pathway or privately and a diagnosis of ADHD is made by another professional who is not a consultant psychiatrist based in the UK who specialises in ADHD, we will not be able to enter into shared care with that organisation and will not be able to prescribe the medication. It is your responsibility to check if the ‘right to choose’ or private provider assessments are carried out by a consultant psychiatrist or not. Our secretaries are not able to provide this information. It is also essential that the provider continues to offer follow-up reviews after your diagnosis and offers at a minimum annual medication reviews and follow-up.   

If you have moved to Cambridge from outside the UK with a diagnosis of ADHD and you are taking medication, we require you to be under the care of a UK based consultant psychiatrist who specialises in ADHD prior to the surgery sharing care and being able to prescribe your medication. You will need a referral to a UK psychiatrist, either through the NHS or privately. Please note, as the wait for the NHS mental health team is over a year, and if you need medication within the next few months, you will either need to source this from your doctor outside the UK or look into seeing a psychiatrist privately. 

Once the diagnosis has been made (please see above for the diagnostic requirements) we will take over the prescribing of ADHD medication once it has been initiated and you are on a stable dose. Initial prescriptions and dose adjustments/increases, as well as the physical health checks associated with the dose increases would all need to be done initially by your ADHD clinic. However, once you are established on a stable dose, we would take over the prescription. We would need the clinic to formally write to us requesting shared care at this point specifying the dose, follow up and monitoring requirements. Once established on the medication we would also be able to do the required physical health checks (usually weight, pulse and blood pressure) usually at a minimum of 6 monthly. We would require you to attend, no less frequently than annually, for reviews of the medication with your ADHD team or consultant. We would not be able to continue prescribing medication if you do not have annual reviews with the psychiatry team that are looking after you.  

If you would like to be referred on the NHS locally please contact us via online consultation on our website and we will send you a questionnaire and form for you to complete.  

If you would like to be referred to an NHS ‘right to choose’ provider, please send an online consultation via our website and our secretarial team will send you more information. Alternatively, you go onto the website of your chosen provider, download and complete the relevant forms/questionnaires (these vary from provider to provider) and send them to us via an online consultation on our website. 

If you would like a private assessment, it is likely that you do not need a referral from us as you can book with them directly.