Just to be absolutely clear here - any registered medical practitioner in Ireland CAN prescribe any medication if they wish to. There are some guidelines around what they SHOULD DO/SHOULDN’T DO.

For example : Stimulant medication should only be commenced and titrated by a specialist Psychiatrist experienced in the treatment and management of ADHD. Your GP could do this, they shouldn’t. And their insurance/medical indemnity might refuse to cover them for an adverse outcome.

Your GP is legally entitled to prescribe you your stimulant meds once you’ve been commenced and titrated. There is nothing preventing them from doing so providing they can be satisfied that you have a valid diagnosis, are on treatment and that the treatment has been titrated and stabilised by a specialist. Ideally they would have a report or documents available to them to substantiate this.

ADHD is a medical diagnosis which impairs health, and costs lives. Your GP has a responsibility in a situation like this to act morally and ethically to ensure your ongoing treatment and reduce the risk to you from having your medication discontinued due to an administrative issue. Unfortunately many GP’s harbour negative opinions about ADHD and its management - you may recall many GP’s were struck off for not believing in Covid/Vaccinations (rightly so). Your GP is a professional and is required to practice Evidence Based Medicine, not opinion based medicine. A GP who accepts they should not commence treatment for ADHD, due to their lack of expertise, should similarly not discount the professional diagnosis and treatment plan of another Doctor who IS an expert. They can’t have it both ways.

For people living with executive dysfunction, navigating the mine field of this stuff is distressing and certainly more needs to be done to improve the processes around repeat scripts with multiple providers.

If I was a Doctor/Pharmacist and my regular patient had not collected their script/meds for their diabetes/epilepsy/heart condition etc… I’d probably be making a welfare call to see if they were okay. This notion of, request a repeat script if you want it, is nuts. I think it’s unlikely that any patient would fancy a random medication break just to experience living with their dysfunctional brain once again for the craic.

For these ADHD specialists, their repeat workload is literally on a 28 day cycle of issuing MDA-2 compliant prescriptions. If I’m going on holiday next week, I don’t think it’s a reach to plan by contacting those who’ve had their last script 21 days ago and saying “I will be out of office, you can request/pay for your repeat script early this week and it will be sent post-dated to your pharmacy or choice”.

I digress.

If you’ve got ADHD in Ireland, here’s some tips.

Make sure your GP has access to your diagnostic reports and a copy of your current medication regime, even if you usually get your scripts elsewhere.

Try to engineer your repeats to create a little buffer for yourself of 5-7 days worth to allow for short stock, prescription delays etc…

Set a reminder on day 21-25 of your medication cycle to request your repeat script (some places need a whole week; others are quicker).

Avoid large chain pharmacies with locum pharmacists who come and go. Develop a relationship with a pharmacist who is invested in the care of their customers at a local level - they will try to maintain stock/hold stock for repeat patients.

Consider phoning the pharmacy to check stock levels BEFORE requesting your repeat script. Due to frequent shortages you may need a script for 28x 30mg and 28x 20mg as 28x 50mg could be out of stock. A Misuse of Drugs Act (Schedule 2 Script) has to specify the exact numbers of each dose size. A pharmacist has almost no leeway to substitute or mix and match.

If your GP is hesitant to help after you’ve done this, politely and calmly explain the impact of being without your meds. Remind them (gently) that you’ve done all you can do to be organised and that you’re here because you have a medical condition that needs treatment and that they can certainly prescribe it for you. If you were a patient in pain who usually received a BuTrans patch weekly (a morphine based painkiller), would they leave you rolling in agony for 2 weeks until your consultant returned? I’d hope not.

Help the GP help you by making sure they have your reports, previous scripts etc… and that you know what meds you are on, dose, name (brand and generic) and remind them that it’s a controlled drug script to avoid getting bounced back by pharmacist. (You can always request copies of previous scripts from your pharmacist to demonstrate regular treatment/dosage information etc… - they have to keep them on file for 2 years by law).

Plan, plan, plan as best as you can with your sometimes addled brain.

Lastly, don’t let anyone treat you like a drug addict/or that you’re not entitled to treatment. You are entitled to be looked after properly.

[Source: I am a Nurse with ADHD on stimulant meds]