ADHD clinics offering shared care

It means the clinic will write to your GP requesting a shared care agreement once your dose is stable. It does not mean your GP will agree — that decision belongs to your GP practice, and they are not obliged to accept.

A shared care agreement is a formal arrangement between a private specialist and your NHS GP. The specialist handles diagnosis and initial treatment, then provides detailed guidance to your GP, who takes over routine prescribing. The specialist remains available for advice and annual reviews if needed.

There is no guarantee, and it is worth asking your GP practice before you book. Shared care is voluntary: the GMC is clear that a GP cannot be compelled to enter an agreement, and BMA guidance does not recommend shared care with private providers, citing the principle of keeping private and NHS care separate. NHS England's independent ADHD Taskforce (April 2025) reported that support for GPs to prescribe ADHD medication is patchy, and a national survey of primary care in England (Price and colleagues, British Journal of General Practice, 2024) found that the elements supporting shared-care prescribing are not universally available. Practices set their own policies, so the answer depends on yours.

Once your dose is stable and you are responding well, your clinic writes to your GP with the diagnosis, the medication and dose, and a proposed shared care protocol. How long titration takes varies by person and by clinic, so there is no fixed timetable — and the request going out is not the same as your GP accepting it.

If your GP agrees to prescribe, you pay the standard NHS prescription charge instead of a private prescription fee. In England that is £9.90 per item (2026/27), with prepayment certificates at £32.05 for three months and £114.50 for twelve. NHS prescriptions are free in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. If your GP does not take over, your clinic continues prescribing privately and you pay its fees.

Your GP can refer you back to the private clinic for specialist advice. Shared care protocols normally set out how the specialist supports the GP on dose adjustments or medication changes, and some clinics offer ad-hoc consultations for patients under shared care. The detail varies between clinics and between local NHS areas.

If shared care is agreed, your GP handles routine prescribing and monitoring. You may still need to pay for occasional specialist reviews — often annually — depending on the clinic's shared care protocol. If it is not agreed, you stay with the clinic's own follow-up schedule and fees.

25 of these clinics accept NHS Right to Choose, so the assessment itself is NHS-funded. Afterwards the clinic can still write to your GP requesting shared care. This is also the situation BMA guidance is most open to, because a Right to Choose referral is a commissioned NHS service rather than private care — though the decision still rests with your GP practice.