Our Clinics & Services.

WINYATES HEALTH CENTRE, REDDITCH

ADHD ‘RIGHT TO CHOOSE’ PROVIDERS - REFERRAL PATIENT INFORMATION

Due to a sharp rise in demand for ADHD assessment, our regional healthcare commissioner advised that patients can be eligible for NHS funded care if a private ADHD provider has an NHS contract as a Right to Choose provider.

Accordingly, we have agreed only to accept private shared care agreements from ADHD providers who have a current NHS contract on the approved list of our ICB who are able to commit to ongoing shared care.

Winyates Health Centre does not have the means nor capacity to independently verify the vast array of private ADHD providers that patients may access and patients seeking private ADHD treatment from providers without an NHS Right to Choose contract may not be eligible for NHS funded care.  GPs retain the right to decline shared care prescribing and if this happens the responsibility for prescribing remains with the private specialist.

We recognise that the access to NHS funded ADHD care is suboptimal, and many patients face significant wait times. 

In light of the above, our ICB has now accredited Quay Healthcare as its only provider of adult ADHD assessments and medication initiation and titration. 

Quay Healthcare will also consider starting someone on medication who already has a diagnosis, subject to their clinical review of the originating assessment.

Whilst patients can choose any Right to Choose provider, at this stage only Quay Healthcare have been accredited by the ICB and patients who choose an alternative will need to understand that the provider may not initiate and titrate medication and the practice may not take on medication prescribing. 

Quay Healthcare, a GP Federation located in NHS Cheshire and Merseyside.

www.quayhealthcare.org

The key message to you is that this is the only provider that our ICB has currently identified to provide a high-quality service, and who can initiate and titrate medication in a way which means on-going prescribing can be safely picked up by us.

As a surgery we have also referred to date successfully to the following ICB England accredited Right to Choose ADHD providers, but we cannot restrict your choice, nor are we allowed to directly influence who you choose.

·         Psychiatry-UK

·         ADHD.360

·         Harrow Health

We must point out that if you choose another ADHD right to choose provider, the following:

1.      There is no guarantee of quality as the provider has not been accredited by the ICB.

2.      A contract with another ICB does not mean the provider has been accredited by that ICB.

3.      If the provider does not initiate and titrate medication, then the patient will need to be re-assessed if they later want to consider medication.

4.      Even if the provider will initiate and titrate medication, then they are highly unlikely to have a Shared Care Agreement with the ICB / GP practice and therefore the practice will not pick-up on-going prescribing. GPs can refer to the right to choose pathways currently- but ICB are looking at referral pathways as part of current work.

The local ICB accreditation bar is set higher than the minimum expectations NHSE requires for Right to Choose providers and is designed to give confidence to patients and Primary Care about quality and performance.

Winyates Health Centre – ADHD referral pathway

• Patient to book appointment with GP to discuss their symptoms of ADHD

• You will be asked to complete a questionnaire

• The GP will complete the referral and attach your completed questionnaire and submit to Quay Healthcare.

• Quay Healthcare will contact you directly.

Once this referral has been submitted and in line with our busy surgery demands, we will be unable to redirect a referral to a different provider and you will have to refer yourself privately.

We hope the above information helps you understand the referral process for ADHD diagnosis and further management.