If you are registered with a GP in England and they refer you to a consultant or specialist in mental health, you have the legal right to choose your provider.
As Psych-UK Ltd has NHS contracts to provide adult ADHD diagnosis and treatment services with a number of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in England, we fulfil the criteria to be a qualified provider under the NHS Right to Choose. As long as your GP feels a referral is appropriate and will make a referral to us, we are able to get your ADHD diagnosis and treatment paid for by the NHS.
Eligibility
- You must be registered with a GP surgery in England. Right to Choose (RTC) is not currently available in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland. If you move out of England during your treatment, you will no longer be eligible for RTC.
- The organisation you choose must be a ‘qualified provider’. Psychiatry-UK has NHS contracts to provide adult ADHD and autism diagnosis and treatment services with a number of Integrated Care Boards (ICBs) in England, and therefore meets the RTC criteria.
- We cannot provide ADHD assessments for children under the age of 18 under RTC.
If your GP feels a referral is appropriate and will make a referral to us, we can arrange for your treatment to be paid for by the NHS under the Right to Choose legislation.
How to apply for Right to Choose
If you are registered with a GP surgery in England and you are referred by a GP to a consultant or specialist in mental health, you have the legal right to choose the organisation (qualified provider) to whom you are referred, as long as that organisation is providing that service in another part of England.
- Download and complete this ASRS form
- Download and amend this letter to include your details (including your email address) and address it to your GP
Take both of the above to your GP and if they feel an ADHD assessment is appropriate, ask ‘Can I be referred to Psychiatry-UK Ltd under Right to Choose‘.
If you are registered with a GP surgery in England and you are referred by a GP to a consultant or specialist in mental health, you have the legal right to choose the organisation (qualified provider) to whom you are referred, as long as that organisation is providing that service in another part of England.
- Download and complete this AQ10 form.
- Download and amend this letter to include your details (including your email address) and address it to your GP.
Take both of the above to your GP and if they feel an ASD assessment is appropriate, ask ‘Can I be referred to Psychiatry-UK Ltd under Right to Choose‘.
The information below is for the GP. Only your GP can make a referral on your behalf.
A referral MUST contain the following 3 items or the referral may be rejected:
- A short covering letter stating that you (the GP) wish to refer this patient to Psych-UK Ltd, for an ADHD assessment, under NHS Right to Choose legislation. Please give a brief explanation for the referral. This letter should be addressed to Psych-UK Ltd and should have your name (the GP) at the bottom (not ANP or other). Please also include the patient’s email address (found on the letter given to you by the patient) as we are an online service.
- A completed ASRS form (which the patient should have given to you)
- A brief medical summary of the patient along with patient contact details (phone and email address)
Referral documents can be sent as attachments to p-uk.RTC-referrals@nhs.net
This mailbox is solely for clinical use. Patient queries will not receive a response.
For further assistance, contact our support team through our live web chat.
Alternatively, the address for a written referrals is:
Psych-UK Ltd
3b Fore Street
Camelford
Cornwall
PL32 9PG
The information below is for the GP. Only your GP can make a referral on your behalf.
A referral MUST contain the following 3 items or it may be rejected:
- A short covering letter stating that you (the GP) wish to refer this patient to Psych-UK Ltd, for an ASD assessment, under NHS Right to Choose legislation. Please give a brief explanation for the referral. This letter should be addressed to Psych-UK Ltd and should have your name (the GP) at the bottom (not ANP or other). Please also include the patient’s email address (found on the letter given to you by the patient) as we are an online service.
- A completed AQ10 form (which the patient should have given to you)
- A brief medical summary of the patient along with patient contact details (phone and email address)
Referral documents can be sent as attachments to p-uk.RTC-referrals@nhs.net
This mailbox is solely for clinical use. Patient queries will not receive a response.
For further assistance, contact our support team through our live web chat.
Alternatively, the address for a written referrals is:
Psych-UK Ltd
3b Fore Street
Camelford
Cornwall
PL32 9PG
Right To Choose – Your Questions Answered:
We receive a high number of enquiries about Right To Choose (RTC) so please read our FAQ’s below before getting in touch.
Psychiatry-UK is a fully online company, and our services may not be suitable for all patients.
Whereas traditional in-person care is provided directly by a mental health specialist in a local clinic or surgery, an online (or ‘telepsychiatry’) service uses technology such as a computer, phone or tablet to deliver care remotely. This means that:
- We will communicate with you via our MedQare patient portal
- Your assessment will take place via a secure Teams call with your doctor
- If you are referred to our titration team for medication treatment, this will also take place online
- Access to the internet
- A mobile phone to receive SMS texts for 2FA (two-factor authentication) to access our MedQare portal
We continue to experience unprecedented demand for referrals for both our adult ADHD and autism services, which has inevitably created waiting lists for assessment and treatment.
We are unable to give precise waiting times because the time you will need to wait for an assessment can change frequently due to multiple factors. Our customer service team will not be able to give any more information on wait times through our web chat service or support line. Please wait to be contacted by us.
If you are already registered with us, we will contact you by email and portal note to arrange the appointment, so please keep looking out for Psychiatry-UK emails and check your portal regularly for messages.
At present we can only see adults under Right to Choose according to the terms of our contracts. We do, of course, have child and adolescent specialists available on a private basis.
Children can very often be diagnosed through the Children and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) via school referral.
To apply for ADHD referral and treatment under Right to Choose, you must be referred by your GP.
Please note: We do not currently offer private ADHD assessment.
Assuming that your GP is refusing to refer you due to funding concerns and not a clinical reason, you can ask them to read the NHS information governing patient choice.
Common causes of confusion are the fact that we are not commissioned in your ICB, which is not relevant, or that the GP is only aware of applying through an IFR (Individual Funding Request) and asking the ICB for permission first, which again, is not necessary.
Your GP does not need to get prior approval for your referral from the local Integrated Care Board (ICB) and we do not need to seek their approval before starting your treatment.
Once we receive the referral from your GP, we will contact you and ask you to complete some further questionnaires. We will then arrange an appointment for you to be assessed by one of our ADHD specialist doctors and commence treatment if indicated.
A patient’s legal right to choose a provider covers all aspects of healthcare. However, you can only choose an eligible provider that has an NHS contract for the service you require. At present, Psychiatry-UK is only commissioned for Adult ADHD and Adult Autism assessments.
Your assessment is covered and any medication treatment.
Although we are planning to offer alternative treatments such as coaching and therapy in the future, we currently provide medication treatment only.
If you already have an ADHD diagnosis and are seeking treatment with Psychiatry-UK under the Right to Choose scheme, we will need a referral from your GP for your ongoing care.
- You will need an assessment appointment with one of our doctors to review your diagnosis, the difficulties you are experiencing and any previous treatment.
- If you are undergoing medication changes with another service, we would not be able to accept a referral until you are on a stable treatment, or until the treatment has ended.
If you move out of England while you are on our waiting list or during treatment, you will no longer be eligible for Right to Choose. You will need to be referred to a local ADHD service, or we could continue your treatment on a private basis.
No. The Right to Choose rules cannot be used to swap provider mid-treatment. If you are unhappy with your existing care, you will need to reach a resolution with your current provider.
No. We can only invoice the ICB from the date of the referral. You can get a referral from your GP to cover the cost of treatment following a diagnosis made privately, however.
We are not able to provide second opinion assessments under Right to Choose, unless you paid for the first assessment privately.