ADHD Prescribing
Avon LMC recognises the growing number of ADHD diagnoses and the increasing demand for ADHD treatment. General practice often finds itself under pressure to prescribe ADHD medications, sometimes in the absence of appropriate specialist support or clear shared care arrangements.
This page provides Avon LMC’s guidance to support GPs in navigating ADHD prescribing safely, lawfully, and within their clinical competence.
All shared care prescribing (either within the NHS or with a private provider) is voluntary.
General practitioners should not initiate or continue prescribing ADHD medication without:
- A formal diagnosis from an appropriately qualified specialist
- A clear, agreed shared care protocol
- Ongoing specialist oversight and monitoring
Avon LMC would like to draw member’s attention to the BNSSG enhanced services for Specialist Medication Monitoring (which includes physical health monitoring for ADHD medications) and ADHD Annual Reviews for adults only.
Please find the supporting document as follows.
ADHD and Right to Choose providers
It has been brought to our attention that some Right to Choose providers offering ADHD assessments are either asking GPs to submit referrals via online portals or they are declining standard referral forms via secure mechanisms such as Egress.
We have communicated with two of the RTC providers, ADHD360 and Clinical Partners, reminding them that there is no contractual obligation for GPs to refer patients using anything other than the standard NHS referral form.
Both providers are aware of the need for GPs to be able to send clinical information via secure mechanisms. Clinical Partners have confirmed that they have a secure nhs.net email address for GPs to send referrals to. Despite ADHD360 being advised that GPs have no contractual obligation to use online referral forms, they have expressed a preference for them, however we are aware that ADHD360 have access to a secure nhs.net email address.
We have also had practice queries about RTC providers asking them to request ECGs and cardiology referrals. Our advice is that as per the standard NHS contract, it is the responsibility of the provider to be making their own onward referrals. This includes RTC ADHD providers requesting cardiology referrals, which just requires them to write a referral letter to the relevant trust, if they are operating from a remote base.
This request can be rejected using the LMC workload transfer letter and ticking the relevant bullet point covering onward referral.