Why won't my GP prescribe ADHD medication after a private diagnosis?

The short of it: your GP is allowed to say no

Because shared-care prescribing is voluntary, your GP can lawfully decline to take over ADHD medication after a private diagnosis; a private report creates no NHS prescribing entitlement.

Shared care is the arrangement where a specialist starts and settles the medication, then hands the routine prescribing and monitoring to your GP. It is a protocol the practice opts into, not a duty the GP owes you. A refusal is not a verdict on your private diagnosis, and it does not mean your child cannot be treated. It means the prescribing stays with the private provider unless someone in the NHS agrees to take it on.

Why GPs decline private shared care specifically

The British Medical Association (the doctors' professional body, the BMA) set out in 2025 that shared care is non-core, voluntary work a practice can decline - over capacity, over whether the GP feels competent to monitor, or over how reachable the specialist is if something goes wrong. UK doctors went further at the 2025 LMC Conference, calling shared-care arrangements with private providers unsafe, not enduring, and a driver of health inequality. So a private-route refusal often is not personal to you; it is the practice applying a position many GPs now hold.

What to do first, and how to escalate

1. Ask the practice, in writing, for its written ADHD or private shared-care policy, and ask your local NHS commissioner (your Integrated Care Board, the ICB) for its stance. A useful sentence: "Please send me the practice's shared-care policy for ADHD and confirm the ICB's position, so I understand the basis for the decision." You want to escalate against the actual policy, not one GP's discretion.
2. If the policy does not explain the refusal, raise it with the practice manager, then the ICB or PALS (the NHS Patient Advice and Liaison Service), then a formal complaint. You can also register with a different practice, though many apply the same private shared-care position.

The higher-leverage route

Fighting the individual GP is rarely the quickest fix. A GP is far more likely to accept shared care from an NHS-owned diagnosis than from a private one. NHS Right to Choose lets an eligible patient in England pick a qualifying NHS-contracted provider for a first appointment at NHS cost, which produces an NHS-pathway diagnosis. The catch in 2026: several ICBs have paused or capped Right to Choose for ADHD under their annual plans, so check whether it is open in your postcode before you rely on it. Titration is specialist-led under NICE guidance (NG87); shared care only follows once the dose is stable.

This page is general information, not clinical or legal advice.