Shared care: how ADHD prescribing moves to your GP

Shared care is the arrangement that transfers responsibility for your ADHD prescriptions from a specialist to your NHS GP. It is the normal NHS pathway after diagnosis and titration, and for most people it is the difference between paying private prescription prices indefinitely and paying standard NHS charges.

When it happens

Not at diagnosis. Shared care begins once you are stable — the medication and dose are settled, side effects are known and acceptable, and the picture is no longer changing month to month. Until then, the specialist keeps prescribing and reviewing.

What your GP needs

• A comprehensive report from an assessment carried out to national standards
• Evidence the prescriber is on the GMC Specialist Register
• A clear record of titration, current dose and monitoring to date
• A named specialist they can contact if something changes

This is why the quality of the assessment report matters long after the appointment itself. A thin report is the most common reason a practice declines.

The part providers should be honest about

Shared care is discretionary. Each GP practice decides whether to accept it, and some do not — occasionally as a blanket policy, occasionally because of local prescribing agreements. No provider, NHS or private, can guarantee your practice will say yes.

Anyone promising guaranteed shared care is promising something outside their control. What a good service can do is produce documentation that gives the request the best chance, and support the conversation if questions come back.

It is worth asking your GP practice about their position on shared care for private ADHD diagnoses before you book an assessment, not after.