What we can and cannot do — stated plainly, because a lot of clinics are not clear about this.
Assessed and treated by a GMC-registered GP
Prescriptions, sick notes and referral letters included
A written treatment plan after every appointment
Your NHS records in the room, with your consent
Care led personally by Dr Khan
Attentive, unhurried care that listens properly
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Registered with the Care Quality Commission
ADHD is a neurodevelopmental condition affecting attention regulation, impulse control and executive function — the mental machinery for planning, starting tasks, switching between them, managing time and regulating emotion.
It is present from childhood by definition, even where it is only recognised in adulthood. Around 3 to 4% of adults are affected, and a large proportion have never been assessed.
We should be clear about our limits at the outset, because this is an area where a lot of services are not.
We do not diagnose ADHD. Diagnosis requires a structured specialist assessment covering childhood history, ideally with information from someone who knew you as a child, and formal exclusion of the conditions that imitate it. It is not something any twenty-minute consultation can deliver, and a service offering it as one should be treated with caution.
We do not prescribe stimulant medication. These are controlled drugs, and remote initiation is not appropriate.
What a consultation here does offer is genuinely useful: a proper discussion of whether assessment is warranted, screening for the conditions that mimic ADHD and are far more common, a private referral letter, and — importantly — an honest explanation of the NHS Right to Choose route, which many people do not know exists and which costs nothing.
The inattentive presentation — quiet, disorganised, daydreaming — does not disrupt a classroom, so it does not get noticed. Girls also mask more effectively, at considerable cost. Many women are identified only in their thirties or forties, frequently after a child is diagnosed and the description sounds uncomfortably familiar.
ADHD is strongly heritable — among the most heritable conditions in psychiatry. It involves differences in the brain networks regulating attention and executive control, particularly those using dopamine and noradrenaline.
It is not caused by parenting, screen time, or sugar. Those beliefs persist and cause a great deal of unwarranted guilt.
Other contributors include prematurity, low birth weight, and prenatal exposures.
This list matters, because these are far more common than ADHD and several are straightforwardly treatable:
Sorting these out is the most useful thing a GP consultation contributes before an assessment.
Diagnosis requires a structured specialist assessment, carried out by a psychiatrist or a suitably trained specialist. It involves:
Screening questionnaires such as the ASRS are useful for deciding whether assessment is warranted. They do not diagnose anything, and a high score is a reason to be assessed rather than an answer.
The genuinely valuable part, and the part most often skipped:
NHS Right to Choose. In England you have a legal right to choose your provider for a first outpatient appointment, including several ADHD services with shorter waits than local NHS teams. It is free, and a great many people have never heard of it. We will explain how it works and provide the referral.
Private assessment. Faster, and costs several hundred to over a thousand pounds. Before you spend that, read the next section — there is something you should know about what happens afterwards.
If you are diagnosed privately and started on medication, the usual expectation is that your NHS GP will take over prescribing under a shared care agreement, at NHS prescription cost.
Many NHS practices now decline shared care for ADHD. It is not obligatory, and where a practice declines, you are left paying privately for medication and monitoring indefinitely — which can run to substantial ongoing cost.
Ask your NHS practice whether they accept ADHD shared care before you pay for a private assessment. It is a two-minute question that has caught out a great many people, and no private provider is likely to raise it with you.
We do not initiate or prescribe stimulant medication — methylphenidate, lisdexamfetamine and similar. They are controlled drugs requiring in-person titration with blood pressure, pulse and cardiac assessment, and remote prescribing is not appropriate. This applies to everyone.
Established treatment involves careful dose titration over weeks, regular blood pressure and heart rate checks, and — in children — height and weight monitoring. That is specialist work.
Seek urgent help — call 999, or the Samaritans on 116 123 — if:
Seek same-day assessment if you are taking ADHD medication and have:
Book a consultation for:
The underlying difficulty is executive function — so the effective strategies all move that work out of your head and into the environment.
Access to Work — a government scheme that funds ADHD coaching, assistive software and equipment for employed and self-employed people. It is not means-tested, does not come from your employer's budget, and is badly under-claimed.
The Equality Act — ADHD generally qualifies as a disability, so reasonable workplace adjustments are an entitlement. Written instructions, flexible deadlines, a quieter workspace and noise-cancelling headphones are all routine adjustments.
No supplement treats ADHD. Omega-3 has a very small effect at best. Correcting a genuine iron deficiency, however, does improve symptoms — which is a reason to have ferritin checked properly rather than to buy something speculatively.
This is the area of private medicine with the most difficult reputation, and it is worth being direct.
NHS ADHD assessment is free, and under the Right to Choose pathway in England you can ask your GP to refer you to any NHS-commissioned provider — which is frequently much faster than the local service and costs nothing. A great many people pay privately without knowing that route exists, and it is the single most useful thing on this page.
Private assessment is legitimate and can be excellent — but quality varies enormously. A proper assessment takes well over an hour, involves collateral history where possible, screens for the conditions that mimic and coexist with ADHD, and is carried out by a psychiatrist or suitably qualified specialist. An assessment lasting forty minutes with a diagnosis at the end is not that.
The practical trap is shared care. Many NHS practices now decline shared care agreements for privately initiated ADHD medication, which leaves people paying privately for prescriptions indefinitely. Ask your GP surgery about their shared care policy before you pay for an assessment, not afterwards.
What we do not do is diagnose ADHD or prescribe stimulants. Stimulants are controlled drugs, we never prescribe them remotely, and diagnosis requires specialist assessment. What we can do is discuss whether assessment is warranted, screen for the things that look like ADHD — thyroid disease, sleep apnoea, anxiety, depression — and help you navigate the referral routes.
NICE NG87, Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: diagnosis and management, is the governing guideline. It specifies that diagnosis should be made only by a specialist psychiatrist, paediatrician or other appropriately qualified healthcare professional, based on a full clinical and psychosocial assessment.
NG87 requires assessment of developmental and psychiatric history, observer reports, and consideration of the impact of symptoms across settings — which is why a brief assessment is inadequate.
NG87 recommends medication as part of a comprehensive treatment plan, with baseline cardiovascular assessment and ongoing monitoring of height, weight, blood pressure and pulse.
ADHD medications are Schedule 2 controlled drugs under the Misuse of Drugs Regulations 2001, and GMC remote prescribing guidance sets a high bar for prescribing controlled drugs without a face-to-face assessment — the basis for our position.
NHS England Right to Choose guidance underpins the referral route described above.
No, and neither can any twenty-minute consultation. Diagnosis needs a structured specialist assessment with childhood evidence and collateral history. What we can do is establish whether assessment is warranted, exclude the conditions that imitate it, and refer you — including via the free Right to Choose route.
A legal right in England to choose your provider for a first outpatient appointment. Several ADHD services accept referrals this way with shorter waits than local NHS teams, and it is free. It is not widely publicised, and many people pay privately without ever knowing it existed. Ask us for the referral.
Possibly — but ask your NHS practice first whether they accept shared care for ADHD. Many now decline it. If yours does, you will be paying privately for medication and monitoring indefinitely after the assessment, which is a substantial ongoing cost that private providers rarely mention up front.
No. Stimulants are controlled drugs requiring in-person titration with cardiovascular monitoring, and remote prescribing is not appropriate for anyone. If you are established on treatment and need a review, that belongs with the service managing it.
Because the classic picture — a disruptive boy — is only one presentation. The inattentive type is quiet and disorganised rather than disruptive, so it goes unnoticed, and girls tend to mask more effectively. Being academically able also hides it, until the demands of adult life outgrow the compensations.
Yes — this is one of the commonest misunderstandings. ADHD is a problem of regulating attention, not of having it. Hyperfocus on something absorbing sits alongside an inability to engage with something dull, and both come from the same underlying difficulty.
Genuinely worth checking, because several imitators are far more common and treatable. Sleep apnoea, iron deficiency, thyroid disease, anxiety, depression and perimenopause all impair attention in the same way. Excluding those is worth doing before a long assessment wait, not after.
Falling oestrogen affects dopamine, and many women find ADHD symptoms worsen considerably through perimenopause — or are identified for the first time then, having coped until that point. It is a recognised pattern and worth raising, because addressing the hormonal side may change how much else you need.
August 23, 2026
Ongoing
Time to be seen
Appointment length
Your NHS record in the room
Written treatment plan
Told when a test isn’t needed
Cost
Same day, usually
20 minutes
Yes, with your consent
Included
Yes, and told why
£40 for 20 minutes
Varies by practice
Typically 10 minutes
Yes, your full record
Not routinely
Usually
Free
Same day
Often 10 to 15 minutes
Usually not
Sometimes charged
Varies by provider
Often a subscription
Same-day access is usually available, from 6am to 10pm, seven days a week. You choose a time that suits you rather than waiting on hold at 8am.
Yes. Care is led personally by Dr Mohammad Khan, so you are not passed between clinicians. Continuity is the point of a small practice: someone who knows your history and is listening attentively rather than working through a checklist.
Yes, with your consent. We can access your Summary Care Record during the consultation, so your current medications, allergies and significant history are in the room. That means fewer questions you have already answered elsewhere, and safer prescribing.
No. We are not here to replace GPs, only to support them. Your NHS practice remains responsible for your ongoing care, and with your consent we write to them after the consultation. We are useful when you need to be seen sooner, or want more time than a standard appointment allows.
Twenty unhurried minutes and a comprehensive assessment. A written treatment plan is included, along with any prescription, sick note or referral letter arising from the consultation, at no extra charge.
£40 for 20 minutes, self-pay. Membership is optional and never required. Priced for fairness, because we are not here to charge extortionate amounts for access to a doctor.
It means the diagnosis can usually be made from your history and photographs, and that treatment can be arranged safely without examining you. Where a condition is not marked treatable online, it is because examination is the diagnosis — listening to a chest, feeling an abdomen, examining an ear or a joint — or because a procedure or device is needed.
Yes, where there is a genuine bacterial infection — cellulitis, impetigo, bacterial urine infections, confirmed strep throat. We will also frequently tell you that you do not need one. Most sore throats, coughs, colds and earaches are viral, and an antibiotic gives you the side effects with none of the benefit.
If your problem turns out to be genuinely outside what we can do remotely, the doctor will tell you straight away, point you to the right service, and refund your fee in full. We would rather do that than fill twenty minutes to justify the charge.
Call 999 or go to A&E — do not book an online appointment and do not wait for a reply to an email. For urgent problems that are not emergencies, NHS 111 is available 24 hours a day, online or by phone, and can direct you to the right service.
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