Wilson Wilson
Bluelighter
Today I heard about someone actually getting a (to be decided - ritalin or dex though) script for adult adhd from a GP. The person did have a previous dignoisis but it was an 'educational diagnosis' as opposed to a clinical one. A psychiatrist was mentioned but I can't recall the context - perhaps it had to be approved but, if so, must have been deemed a formality)
Outliers are that the GP has extensive mental health / SpLD training (rare as hens teeth), the patient is eloquent and does not come over as a drug-seeker whatsoever (they aren't)
This actually is very interesting because the guidelines on ADHD diagnosis are pretty strict. This might seem to contradict my previous comment but it doesn't. The TL;DR version is: the diagnosis is tricky to get due to a combination of limited NHS resources (hence so many people going private) and a load of red tape, but once you have the diagnosis getting stims is a piece of piss in the vast majority of cases.
But a GP starting a script based on a childhood informal diagnosis? This is very odd. Under normal circumstances, even a regular psychiatrist cannot make an ADHD diagnosis, they must be an ADHD specialist. Adult ADHD is also considered a separate condition from childhood ADHD in the UK (for reasons I will never understand) so a childhood diagnosis doesn't mean much of anything as an adult. You have to start from square one again regardless.
If I had to guess at the details of that situation, an ADHD specialist psychiatrist wrote a referral to the GP formalising the diagnosis, and as the GP in this case has mental health training they both feel comfortable setting out the medication regimen. The diagnosis is the bit they tend to worry about, as they don't want to overdiagnose the condition and give out stims to people who don't actually need them. If they're confident in correct diagnosis there's usually no problems.
There may be some type of approval process depending on the CCG, this is mostly a formality however it's still a drawn out bureaucratic one. When my mate got his dex script transferred over to the NHS they took months going through this process before he finally got it on the NHS. Whereas when I got my script transferred I literally just showed my GP the private script and got an equivalent NHS one there and then.
However I have a longstanding relationship with that GP and my mate didn't with his, so that could make a big difference. Also we both got diagnosed privately, so the same process may very well not apply when the referral is from an NHS specialist.
Finally it might be an important detail here that once someone has an ADHD dx and is on meds, a GP is allowed to manage the script. They can move patients to different stims, increase doses, etc. No rules stop them from doing this, it comes down to just how comfortable do they feel doing it. A lot of GPs will refer someone back to a specialist for this simply because they don't know anything about ADHD and are aware the meds are controlled drugs. But they can just as easily do it themselves if they want to.