Guidance for Patients & Parents
What is Right to Choose?
If a GP needs to refer you for a physical or mental health condition, in most cases you have the legal right to choose the hospital or service (eg a particular consultant) you’d like to go to.
This will include many private hospitals if they provide services to the NHS (hold a qualifying NHS standard contract with any ICB or NHSE). There is NO cost to you, although providers websites will contain information about costs for patients requesting a Non-NHS, private assessment.
Also if you or your child has been referred to a service but the first appointment waiting time is over 18 weeks, then patient choice guidance allows you to be referred to another provider if you request it. However, the referral to the previous provider would need to be cancelled as you cannot be on two waiting lists for the same service.
Our local ICB have provided a list of independent providers across the UK who hold a qualifying NHS contract for ASD and/or ADHD assessment and/or treatment. This is updated regularly and the latest version will be provided to alongside this guidance. Please note the list is split into:
1. ADHD – which is further split into Adult and Child/Young Person (CYP) and then the tables further show which providers do assessment only and which providers do assessment and also offer treatment/management e.g prescribing medication. Please note that if you choose to be referred to an assessment only provider then once a diagnosis is made you would need to be referred by us to join the local provider waiting list (i.e. there is no fast track offered).
2. ASD – table shows which providers do assessment for Adult, Child or both.
When you click into the individual provider links, they will give a rough idea of waiting times which can be anything between 6 to 18 months (but have been increasing over the last 12 months due to significant increase in demand) and also tells you what the referral process is e.g. they usually need you to complete a questionnaire(s) and then GP complete a referral form both of which are sent via email to the provider.
Please note that many providers use online consultations rather than face to face.
It is also very important to note that if you are started on treatment for ADHD by the independent provider then Groby Road Medical Centre would only be happy to continue to prescribe the medication if the provider enters into a shared care agreement with us as per the policy on the LLR APC website (see links below) which includes a 6-12 monthly reviews with the provider.
Adult LLR Shared Care – https://www.areaprescribingcommitteeleicesterleicestershirerutland.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/Methylphenidate-adults.pdf
Child/Young Person LLR Shared Care – https://www.areaprescribingcommitteeleicesterleicestershirerutland.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Li-ADHD-paediatric-SCA.pdf
Steps to follow if are currently on a local provider waiting list for ADHD/ASD whose waiting times are too long and you would like to request a right to choose referral instead:
1. Remember that you CANNOT be on 2 waiting lists at the same time so your existing referral to the local provider would need to be cancelled once a referral to the independent provider has been sent and accepted.
2. We will provide you with the ICB’s list of independent providers for you to have a look at their websites and then choose one. Remember that for ADHD it is better to choose a provider that does both assessment and treatment.
3. You should then complete the required questionnaire(s) as per instructions on the provider website and return them to us with the name of the provider you have chosen. This can be emailed to us at grobyroad.medicalcentre@nhs.net..
4. We will then check that all the referral details required are present and then complete the referral to the independent provider for you.
6. We will then send you a text message to confirm once this been done.
7. Admin team then to cancel referral to local provider.