She should apply for the adult disability payment which is designed to pay for this sort of thing.
She could have had another holiday ffs
Give me amphetamines or cash or I can’t be a good parent.
More than half of that is just the prescription fees. The meds themselves are about £80 a month – or thats the NHS price with no markup – not cheap but eminently worth it if your symptoms are bad enough.
Getting it on the NHS is a nightmare, and can take years. It should just be an easier medication to access a trial of.
We pay taxes. Taxes fund the NHS. The NHS should not be refusing care.
This is a problem for most people with ADHD I know. Hell, I was diagnosed five years ago and the NHS still hasn’t seen fit to give me medication. Of the six other people I know with confirmed diagnoses, none have medication provided by the NHS.
I can’t afford private medication. Most of my friends can’t. We’re being fucked over by years of NHS defunding, and it’s showing up first in mental health, neurodiversity and gender care.
ADHD if it’s unmanaged and untreated is a fucking nightmare but thanks for your comment. Hope it makes you feel better about your day.
“With that money, I could have taken my family on another holiday this year.” – My heart bleeds
You and the rest of us! My meds were £120 per month not including prescription fee (£65) and appointments (£150-300). Total scam. I managed to get shared care but it’s horrible knowing that it could end at any time and I’ll be forced to stop medication
Yeah, that’s what happens when you go private for a diagnosis.
I’ve been talking to my MSP about this. My healthboard simultaneously does not diagnose adult ADHD, while issuing a blanket ban on shared care agreements (the only way to get your meds on the NHS for free). They essentially provide no care for adult ADHD at all, I have no idea how that’s acceptable.
My MSP got a response from the government minister and it was basically “we are liaising with XYZ + inshallah”, they don’t seem to be remotely engaging in the reality where things are constantly getting worse for patients. And this condition was recognised in 2008, there’s no excuse for having such impossibly poor provision for this condition in 2025. More and more places are rejecting shared care agreements in Scotland, barely anywhere does them now.
Shared care itself is complete bullshit tbh. The GP claims they have to do a bunch of work and that’s why they reject agreements, but in my own template agreement they are quite literally only responsible for prescribing and nothing else. It is not more work than if I needed medication for any other condition— indeed I have been prescribed far more serious and consequential medications in the past by GPs with no issues.
They just need to regulate the industry properly and recognise private diagnoses on the NHS while they work out a solution. This “we’re liaising with healthboards (and ignoring how they keep making your care worse” stuff is taking the piss at this point; they need to actually do something substantive to improve things for patients.
If your diagnosis was able to be transferred into the NHS, this would at least mean people would not have to pay for meds. Currently, there doesn’t even seem to be a way to do this at all— no matter the quality of your diagnosis.
I have ADHD, had to get diagnosed privately as Ayrshire and Arran don’t have an adult ADHD service. I was on a Shared Care Agreement which essentially meant that I can be prescribed by my GP (and have medication covered by the NHS) but my care is still primarily by my private practice. That ended at the start of the year, so now I’m paying for that myself. About £105 a month for meds and prescription, and £300 every 6 months for a private review.
Meds, prescription fees, consultations, reviews, titration opportunity costs… There is so much to do and pay every month.
The NHS has been less than helpful, with me having entered the third year of being on a waiting list. And that is after they “lost” my application…. twice.
I know this is semantics, but it’s not quite “the NHS refused to help” – it’s more that the underfunded NHS was unable to provide the necessary support and didn’t validate an externally given diagnosis at the level of GP practice.
I see a lot of the ADHD/ASD centric testimonies which frame the NHS as deliberately screwing people over and although this article isn’t too bad, it has become an accepted position of “NHS bad” when it comes to these conditions when the reality is much more complex.
There is a crisis in NHS funding and consequently support, but there is also a large number of people accessing services of dubious quality and it shouldn’t be expected that the NHS (and doctors within the NHS) compromise their observations, based off an external diagnosis that can’t be verified and provide potentially inappropriate medication.
I’ve had to go private for ADHD and it’s £120/£130 per month for prescriptions. I waited 4 years on the NHS to be told I’ve got up to 3 years further. I went private and was seen, diagnosed and given medication within 6 months… however the NHS will not recognise the diagnosis due to going private. So I have to continue to pay an obscene amount for private support. I work full time, pay taxes/NI etc and ensure I contribute to the government. It’s a really kick in the teeth and I’ve had to stop saving, hobbies due to the private medical costs. Lose/lose for me thus far.
It’s exactly the same issue with trans care. Which all adds to the general issue of disenfranchisement of certain groups of this country by using the NHS politically. Then they tell you we have to make a collective effort to make this nation war ready. Yeah suuuuure. But it’s the same when I hear things like “we have to rebuild the NHS”. Well the NHS doesn’t work for me. Make it work in the first place, then ask citizens to contribute to the country.
I’ve been cranking caffeine since I was 9 to self manage my ADHD. Nearly 40 year on I’ll decline NHS ‘help’
16 comments
She should apply for the adult disability payment which is designed to pay for this sort of thing.
She could have had another holiday ffs
Give me amphetamines or cash or I can’t be a good parent.
More than half of that is just the prescription fees. The meds themselves are about £80 a month – or thats the NHS price with no markup – not cheap but eminently worth it if your symptoms are bad enough.
Getting it on the NHS is a nightmare, and can take years. It should just be an easier medication to access a trial of.
We pay taxes. Taxes fund the NHS. The NHS should not be refusing care.
This is a problem for most people with ADHD I know. Hell, I was diagnosed five years ago and the NHS still hasn’t seen fit to give me medication. Of the six other people I know with confirmed diagnoses, none have medication provided by the NHS.
I can’t afford private medication. Most of my friends can’t. We’re being fucked over by years of NHS defunding, and it’s showing up first in mental health, neurodiversity and gender care.
ADHD if it’s unmanaged and untreated is a fucking nightmare but thanks for your comment. Hope it makes you feel better about your day.
“With that money, I could have taken my family on another holiday this year.” – My heart bleeds
You and the rest of us! My meds were £120 per month not including prescription fee (£65) and appointments (£150-300). Total scam. I managed to get shared care but it’s horrible knowing that it could end at any time and I’ll be forced to stop medication
Yeah, that’s what happens when you go private for a diagnosis.
I’ve been talking to my MSP about this. My healthboard simultaneously does not diagnose adult ADHD, while issuing a blanket ban on shared care agreements (the only way to get your meds on the NHS for free). They essentially provide no care for adult ADHD at all, I have no idea how that’s acceptable.
My MSP got a response from the government minister and it was basically “we are liaising with XYZ + inshallah”, they don’t seem to be remotely engaging in the reality where things are constantly getting worse for patients. And this condition was recognised in 2008, there’s no excuse for having such impossibly poor provision for this condition in 2025. More and more places are rejecting shared care agreements in Scotland, barely anywhere does them now.
Shared care itself is complete bullshit tbh. The GP claims they have to do a bunch of work and that’s why they reject agreements, but in my own template agreement they are quite literally only responsible for prescribing and nothing else. It is not more work than if I needed medication for any other condition— indeed I have been prescribed far more serious and consequential medications in the past by GPs with no issues.
They just need to regulate the industry properly and recognise private diagnoses on the NHS while they work out a solution. This “we’re liaising with healthboards (and ignoring how they keep making your care worse” stuff is taking the piss at this point; they need to actually do something substantive to improve things for patients.
If your diagnosis was able to be transferred into the NHS, this would at least mean people would not have to pay for meds. Currently, there doesn’t even seem to be a way to do this at all— no matter the quality of your diagnosis.
I have ADHD, had to get diagnosed privately as Ayrshire and Arran don’t have an adult ADHD service. I was on a Shared Care Agreement which essentially meant that I can be prescribed by my GP (and have medication covered by the NHS) but my care is still primarily by my private practice. That ended at the start of the year, so now I’m paying for that myself. About £105 a month for meds and prescription, and £300 every 6 months for a private review.
Meds, prescription fees, consultations, reviews, titration opportunity costs… There is so much to do and pay every month.
The NHS has been less than helpful, with me having entered the third year of being on a waiting list. And that is after they “lost” my application…. twice.
I know this is semantics, but it’s not quite “the NHS refused to help” – it’s more that the underfunded NHS was unable to provide the necessary support and didn’t validate an externally given diagnosis at the level of GP practice.
I see a lot of the ADHD/ASD centric testimonies which frame the NHS as deliberately screwing people over and although this article isn’t too bad, it has become an accepted position of “NHS bad” when it comes to these conditions when the reality is much more complex.
There is a crisis in NHS funding and consequently support, but there is also a large number of people accessing services of dubious quality and it shouldn’t be expected that the NHS (and doctors within the NHS) compromise their observations, based off an external diagnosis that can’t be verified and provide potentially inappropriate medication.
I’ve had to go private for ADHD and it’s £120/£130 per month for prescriptions. I waited 4 years on the NHS to be told I’ve got up to 3 years further. I went private and was seen, diagnosed and given medication within 6 months… however the NHS will not recognise the diagnosis due to going private. So I have to continue to pay an obscene amount for private support. I work full time, pay taxes/NI etc and ensure I contribute to the government. It’s a really kick in the teeth and I’ve had to stop saving, hobbies due to the private medical costs. Lose/lose for me thus far.
It’s exactly the same issue with trans care. Which all adds to the general issue of disenfranchisement of certain groups of this country by using the NHS politically. Then they tell you we have to make a collective effort to make this nation war ready. Yeah suuuuure. But it’s the same when I hear things like “we have to rebuild the NHS”. Well the NHS doesn’t work for me. Make it work in the first place, then ask citizens to contribute to the country.
I’ve been cranking caffeine since I was 9 to self manage my ADHD. Nearly 40 year on I’ll decline NHS ‘help’
Comments are closed.