When Leigh White remembers her brother Ryan, she thinks of a boy of extraordinary ability who “won five scholarships at 11” including a coveted place at Bancroft’s, a private school in London. He was, she said, “super bright, witty, personable, generous and kind”. Ryan killed himself on 12 May 2024. A report written after his death acknowledged significant shortcomings in the support he received while seeking help for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
Like many people the Guardian spoke to, he followed the “right to choose” pathway, whereby patients can pick a private provider anywhere in England for assessment, diagnosis and initial treatment. They then ask their GP to enter a shared-care agreement for prescriptions and monitoring.
Sounds great, right? It isn't of course.
However, Ryan struggled to get the two services to link up.The problem lies in the fact that shared care is voluntary and not all GPs agree to it.
Once again, these overpaid bureacrats are the sand in the gears. Because they don't agree with the policy, presumably.
Some patients told the Guardian their doctor had rejected their private diagnosis on the grounds that it did not meet their standards.
And no, it's - for once - not down to money.
This was even after the NHS had paid for it – and despite there being no official rules for private providers to follow.
*sighs*
...he was referred by his GP for an ADHD assessment with Psychiatry UK, a private provider, in September 2022. It took five months for him to be assessed and diagnosed, but because of his bipolar history a community mental health review was needed before medication could begin. “Nobody chased anything, or took responsibility,” Leigh said.
Welvome to the NHS - in fact, welcome to every government run service in the world, it seems.
He was deregistered by his GP practice after he expressed frustration at the delay in getting him help.
And because they can and will do this to those who complain without suffering any consequence, it will never improve.
Right to choose was “poorly regulated, poorly managed and some people are making lots of money out of it”, Adamou said, adding: “If you don’t have regulation for that you are inviting a wild west.”
Regulation isn't going to solve this - consequences for failure will.
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