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Patients with suspected ADHD have been told they face a 10-year wait for care as hospitals across the country stop accepting referrals.
Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust has announced it will no longer accept new referrals of patients needing an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosis as its waiting list hits 4,500.
The trust is one of multiple in recent months to announce it will not long accept new referrals.
In a statement, the mental health trust’s medical director Dr Chris Hosker said: “Our ADHD service’s waiting list will just continue to grow if action is not taken. For example, if someone was to join the waiting list today, it would take well over 10 years for them to be seen.
“We believe it would be unfair and unethical to continue to take referrals. Access to NHS ADHD services is a nationwide problem and not just a Leeds problem. Demand for ADHD services has massively increased in recent years, and the NHS has not been funded to meet this demand – with several other NHS services closing to new referrals across England over the last two years.”
The statement added the move was in response to “unsustainable levels of demand” with 170 new referrals being sent each month, while it is only funded to see and asses 16 a per month.
The move comes amid a national “crisis” facing ADHD and autism services which has forced NHS England to launch a special “taskforce” to tackle the problems.
There are an estimated 2.6 million Britons with ADHD, with 694,000 of them children.
Those diagnosed with ADHD are also facing worsening medication shortages, amid a global supply issue.
In August another NHS trust, Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust, also said it would stop accepting new ADHD referrals, while Oxford Health NHS Trust was also forced to close to new referrals in July.
Meanwhile South London and Maudsley NHS Trust in London sent out an update in July to patients which said: “The National Adult ADHD and Autism Clinic and Psychology Service remains paused to new National referrals at present. We will provide further updates in January 2025.”
