You can find out more about what ADHD is, including symptoms and treatment options, on the NHS website.
When patients choose to seek privately funded healthcare, a number of fundamental principles apply. Please read the following guidance before paying for an ADHD assessment outside the NHS. If you have any questions or concerns, please speak with your GP.
It is important that patients are fully aware of the longer-term implications of privately funding elements of their healthcare, including what to expect once they have paid for and received an assessment and/or diagnosis. This includes an understanding of the limitations of cover provided by any private medical insurance and how ongoing supplies of medication should be obtained.
Important factors to be aware of
- If you wish to receive NHS funded care and treatment for ADHD, you should be assessed and diagnosed in line with NICE guidelines. All NHS funded services will do this automatically. However, if a diagnosis is made through another route, that diagnosis will need to be reassessed and confirmed as NICE compliant before NHS funded care and treatment can begin.
- You have the right to privately fund an ADHD assessment and diagnosis, but this should be on the expectation that everything subsequent to that diagnosis – including medication costs – will also be self-funded.
Your GP has the right to refuse to prescribe ADHD medication on the NHS if you paid for a private assessment and diagnosis. - If you wish to receive NHS funded treatment following a privately funded diagnosis, the diagnosis will still need to be reassessed and confirmed as NICE compliant by the NHS funded service at the point at which you are seen by them.
A privately funded diagnosis cannot be used to advance your position on this waiting list, nor can it be used to bypass the assessment stage and progress straight to treatment. - Please be aware that an NHS clinician cannot be compelled to accept a diagnosis made following a privately funded assessment and may disagree with the diagnosis you have been given.
- Please be aware that a recommendation from a privately funded specialist does not entitle you to NHS prescriptions for that medicine.
The NHS clinician will determine the most clinically appropriate treatment for you, taking into account local and national guidelines, as they take personal clinical responsibility for your treatment.
The clinician who signs the prescription is legally liable for the prescribing and the consequent effects of that drug.
Changes to GP prescribing of ADHD medications in Suffolk and north east Essex
In January 2025 it was announced that some GP practices will stop prescribing ADHD medications for their patients. Please refer to a set of Frequently Asked Questions about what will happen and how these changes may affect you if you are prescribed ADHD medication from your GP practice.
Access the FAQs