Recent pause in referrals for autism and ADHD

Homebird said:

I have just seen an article regarding this recent news.

England and Wales are following something that has been happening in Scotland for a while. Some of our regions will not refer adults unless there are complications, such as other suspected problems such as OCD or CPTSD.

McFrost said:

I think that Right to Choose, while I used it for both of my assessments, has created a vicious circle of money being drained from the NHS.

It only exists in England. The other countries within the UK don't have it. I agree it must be a drain on the English NHS.

For ADHD assessments, they will then get to do the titration for diagnosed patients which would earn them more money. Conversely, NHS service might take the opposite approach to save the NHS medication costs, so it might be a case of one under diagnosing, rather than one over diagnosing.

I think that Right to Choose, while I used it for both of my assessments, has created a vicious circle of money being drained from the NHS. Under investment in Autism and ADHD NHS services has seen more people opting for right to choose, which, as it presumably costs quite a lot more to fund a private assessment than it would for an NHS one, within a fully functioning NHS service, leads to further under investment. It would make sense to me for the NHS to wean itself off right to choose plugging the gaps, and invest the money saved into a vastly improved NHS service better able to meet demand. At the moment it is a bit of a cash cow for private clinics.

This two year wait thing seems a bit like an attempt to make people give up and, while some may be able to continue their lives without a diagnosis and not have too many issues as a result, others will undoubtedly struggle immensely and their will be lives lost as a result.

Homebird said:

They are now looking at capping the cost

I have been reading elsewhere that the government are reconsidering the whole way the NHS is funded because it is such a drain on the public purse. It seems to be well past the think tank stage and has moved to the technique where sitting governments plan "bad news" to be released only after they re-secure power in the next election.

The next election will be in 2-3 years so the timeline aligns.

Luckily the civil service leaks like a sieve so more details should leak in due course if this really is happening.

It’s clearly a hot topic. I remember reading about some sort of government review of the process that is imminent. 

I’ve shared my experience in this thread if it helps.

community.autism.org.uk/.../475234

That's true.

Curious

I was surprised that document is public.

There does seem to be something odd, that the document does have an option for a combined assessment, where as providers often tell people they have to be done separately, but that's probably because they get more money for separate assessments rather than combined?

Maybe its a marketing strategy, if they get a reputation for giving customers the "right" results then maybe they feel they'll be more likely to be recomended to others?

When I saw this report I was pretty cross to be honest, suspending any new referals for two years before they can go on a waiting list is wrong, if the demand is there, which it obviously is then more funding should be put in. I didn't see anything about a cap on fees from private companies, just a suspension of new referals.

Interesting information in this PDF document 

www.google.com/url

B said:

I thought that they would be paid the same amount for an assessment irrespective of the outcome.

It should be like this. Where it's written that they get more money for a positive diagnosis?

Homebird said:

One paper commented that a private service is more likely to diagnose as they are being paid

Are they paid more then for a positive diagnosis?

I thought that they would be paid the same amount for an assessment irrespective of the outcome.