Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Referrals and Medication

NHS ADHD Referrals – Children

If you want to request an assessment for autism and/or ADHD for your child, this must be done by your GP or other health professional.

Here is the process for all new referrals for children and young people aged 5 – 15 with a GP in Hertfordshire.

Please follow the link,

https://www.hertfordshire.gov.uk/microsites/local-offer/services-for-children-and-young-people/refer-for-a-child-or-young-persons-autism-and-or-adhd-assessment.aspx

Please contact us when you are ready to submit the completed forms. We will send you a link to enable you to attach the completed form with any supporting documents to your GP Practice.

NHS ADHD Referrals – Adults

Due to a temporary pause in referrals to the local pathway, as a practice we use the Right-To-Choose (RTC) framework to ensure that our adult patients still receive prompt assessment and diagnosis.

Choosing Your RTC Provider

You are responsible for selecting the provider for your assessment. We cannot make this choice for you. Please take some time to research the available options and let us know which provider you have chosen. A useful resource for finding RTC providers is ADHD UK (Right to Choose – ADHD UK), who lists providers, their services, and the estimated wait times.

Referral Process

You will be asked to complete at least one questionnaire to provide us with all the information we need to refer you. Once you have returned this information, we will complete and send your referral.

Diagnosis & Follow-up

Most RTC providers conduct remote or online assessments. If further treatment or medication is required, local NHS services may not automatically accept the RTC provider’s diagnosis. In such cases, you may need to be re-assessed by local services.

Prescriptions

If you are prescribed medication for ADHD by the RTC provider, we may not immediately take over prescribing. To take over prescribing, the following criteria must be met:

Your ADHD medication has been INITIATED and STABILISED by the specialist
A shared care agreement must be in place between a NHS service and the GP surgery. This will require a referral from the GP surgery into HPFT (Hertfordshire Partnership Foundation Trust). We are unable to prescribe until we have confirmation from HPFT that we ok to do so.
As part of the shared care agreement, the patient MUST REMAIN UNDER THE CARE of the specialist and has a minimum of annual follow up with them
We are only permitted to prescribe the medication as per the Herts & West Essex Integrated Care Board formulary
We are unable to enter a shared care agreement with non NHS services

Further Information

For further information on guidance set by our Integrated Care Board, please contact the Pharmacy and Medicines Optimisation Team (PMOT) for South and West Hertfordshire, which is part of Hertfordshire and West Essex Integrated Care Board.