The results of a BBC investigation have found that there are at least 196,000 adults on waiting lists across the UK, who could be waiting almost a decade for an assessment.
As it stands, the government said delays to ADHD diagnosis are part of a ‘broken NHS’, which it is working to fix. However, new research, which is based on Freedom of Information (FOI) requests and was published this morning, so a lot of work is needed.
The investigation focused on adults rather than children and found over 100,000 are currently waiting for an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessment but could be stuck for up to eight years.
Upsettingly, these long wait times haven’t come as such a shock. Since 2019 referrals for ADHD have increased fourfold, but limited capacity within trusts has meant the wait time for being seen has skyrocketed. One trust based in Sheffield has a waiting list of more than 6,000 people and assessed only three patients last year.
Dr Helen Crimlisk, the Sheffield trust’s executive medical director, told the BBC: ‘We are sorry that we have not been providing a good enough service to people seeking help for ADHD. We have prioritised treating people with a valid assessment instead of carrying out new assessments.’
Currently, there isn’t an official list of adult ADHD providers in the UK although based off findings, the BBC understands there are around 70. To conduct the investigation, 66 of them responded to FOI requests. Following this, experts used data from 44 trusts and health boards who admitted how many people were on their wait lists and calculated this against how many assessments they completed last year. In 24 services, it is estimated to take eight years to clear backlogs.
With this in mind, Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and North East London NHS Foundation Trust, who both claimed they had around 500 patients waiting to be assessed, were the only ones who would take less than a year to clear their backlog.
Commenting on the findings, the Royal College of Psychiatrists said no-one should have to wait years for care that could transform their lives.
In addition, NHS England have said they have ‘launched an independent expert taskforce which will investigate the challenges facing ADHD services and help them manage the rising numbers of referrals.’
Although, whilst we wait for this to kick-in, there is no clear solution.
Image: geralt
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