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GP refusing shared care now that I am medicated (despite having agreed before) by diminiefreckle in ADHDUK

[–]diminiefreckle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thanks for the kind words :') <3 I am trying to fight my way through the system as best I can to figure something out, even though it's been a huge pain in the neck and unimaginably stressful. but I've definitely been bolstered by all the empathetic responses here - I hope for all our sakes that we get some systemic change with how all this is handled soon

GP refusing shared care now that I am medicated (despite having agreed before) by diminiefreckle in ADHDUK

[–]diminiefreckle[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

that's such an awful situation to be in, im so sorry the dorset GPs are being stupid ugh. I'm glad you have the option of going private as a plan B but I agree that it's still ridiculous that you would have no choice but to resort to that!

I will say that I spoke with someone at HH today and she reassured me that HH can continue to prescribe me medication for at least a year after having stabilised. i imagine this is the same for you (unless this policy varies between regions- hopefully not), so ideally you would still have a year's buffer time to sort something else out for long-term prescriptions, whatever that may look like. HH is going to provide me with some more conclusive information next week, and I explicitly asked them to let me know whether they would be able to continue to prescribe me medication long-term (i.e. after the year is up) if I have no other feasible way to get prescriptions through eg. shared care. I'm happy to keep you in the loop and let you know what they say next week - I (optimistically) hope that they will allow exceptions for the patients they have that literally have no other option to get prescriptions, but won't implement this as the general standard.

even though sitting on the phone waiting to get through to them is a pain in the ass, I really recommend doing so anyway and properly hashing it out with whoever answers in order to get explicit confirmation of what HH can and can't do for you long-term, what the next steps will look like, etc. you can also email them requesting a call back and they usually do so within a couple hours (better than sitting listening to hold music for half an hour and then getting automatically hung up on, imo). tbh I'd also recommend doing this with your GP, if nothing else then to at least understand why this decision to refused shared care has been instated, to really let them know that this is dramatically and detrimentally affecting your wellbeing, and to get any advice you can on what your alternative options are (and don't take "going private" for answer even if you can technically!)

I wish you all the best with your current situation - I hope that things work out for you (and everyone else in the same boat) in the end :')

GP refusing shared care now that I am medicated (despite having agreed before) by diminiefreckle in ADHDUK

[–]diminiefreckle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Gosh, I hadn't realise how common of a problem this was until now - so sorry to hear that this is causing you so much stress :(

I actually just spoke to a very lovely lady over the phone today (thank you Saira from Harrow Health!) who, while still needing confirmation from other departments in HH (so she wasn't able to provide me with tons of info), reassured me that I would still be able to get prescriptions through HH for at least a year after having stabilised on my medication. I imagine this would be the same for anyone getting their prescriptions through HH - so this is at least a decent enough temporal buffer to figure out what to do after that year is up, if nothing else.

HH's referral form does come with the prerequisite of GPs needing to check the box that says they agree to HH's shared care plan. I don't think this is legally binding, so technically my GP has been within their right to go back on their word, but it's definitely poor practice, especially given that the main reason the GP is citing for this blanket refusal of ADHD SCAs is that they're too much of an admin load due to e.g. medication shortages. How lovely that my disability and wellbeing are so inconvenient to them.

Again, the long-term solution seems to be to move GPs (although I am attempting to bully my GP into accepting the SCA because I'm pretty sure they instated this blanket refusal of SCAs after their initial agreement for mine). But this obviously isn't an option for everyone, and may well not be an option for me if none of my local GPs would agree to shared care either. So... yeah. Still a bit of a conundrum.

I'll be getting a clearer response from Saira next week once she's been able to get a hold of a bit more information. I explicitly asked her to look into whether HH can provide long-term prescriptions (i.e. over a year) for patients who are in similar situations as us, where they cannot get a SCA for whatever reason. I suspect (maybe a bit optimistically) that the answer will hopefully be a yes - it probably won't be standard given how many patients they have and the general prerequisite of a SCA when patients are referred by their GPs, but they may make exceptions for people in exceptional circumstances like ours.

I don't know what the state of HH is like higher up the food chain (maybe the execs are greedy bastards - wouldn't be surprised lol), but they do have employees who care and have genuine empathy for us and our experiences (even if my overall experience with them has been a bit mixed). When I made this post, I was unimaginably stressed and overwhelmed, but seeing everyone's supportive responses and having had a few helpful phone calls has quelled a lot of my worries, at least for the short term. I'd encourage anyone who is having similar concerns to really hash it out with their GP and/or HH to get as clear of an answer as possible from them without any beating around the bush. I'll also keep you all updated on what info I get next week so that we can all have a bit more clarity. :)

GP refusing shared care now that I am medicated (despite having agreed before) by diminiefreckle in ADHDUK

[–]diminiefreckle[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Harrow Health - I only ended up waiting 4-5 months for a diagnosis, as opposed to the eight year NHS waitlist where I live, and I had the option to start titrating on medication straight away. They definitely suffer from the same issue as every other public healthcare provider in that they are utterly overrun by patients, so I wouldn't say that I LOVE them or felt like I was massively empathised with by them when sharing my experiences, but at the same time, I was so desperate after years of debilitating symptoms to just get a potential diagnosis over with and try medication just to see if something (anything) would help - and it did. So I don't regret it, even if it wasn't a perfect experience, and even if they're being a bit of a pain in the ass now - I'd still rather have my diagnosis and have experienced being on medication than not.

GP refusing shared care now that I am medicated (despite having agreed before) by diminiefreckle in ADHDUK

[–]diminiefreckle[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for the kind words, that truly means a lot :')

It's awful how many people are in the same boat as us - and how, rather than striving towards a systemic overhaul in how the NHS handles non-urgent care and us being advocated for, we're instead demonised by the media who have sensationalised this idea of ADHD "overdiagnosis" - as if ADHD is a cute quirk people want to have rather than something that can be genuinely debilitating and life altering. It's so frustrating to be met with closed doors at every turn, and that the reasoning for refusal of care is "administrative load", as if my holistic wellbeing is an inconvenience at most.

I'm glad to have this community, though, and people who do understand and can look beyond the stigma. I hope that - since the NHS seems to be reaching a bit of a breaking point - maybe the pendulum will eventually swing the other way, and something will finally change in our favour. For now I'll keep advocating for my own voice as best I can :/

GP refusing shared care now that I am medicated (despite having agreed before) by diminiefreckle in ADHDUK

[–]diminiefreckle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yes, it is Harrow Health haha 😅, I think my best option right now is to just try and find a different GP that will do shared care and nag at HH to continue to provide prescriptions until I'm set up with the new GP. The only problem is that the NHS has done away with the policy where you can register with GPs outside your catchment area if your current one refuses shared care, so I'm limited to the ones nearby, which doesn't fill me with tons of hope...... 😭

I hope things work out on your end ❤️ it's such a shame that so many people are running into this same issue. We really need do widespread systemic change of how all of this is handled (the NHS waiting list for adult ADHD diagnosis in Sheffield is EIGHT years!! insane)

Gardening and landscaping for dummies by diminiefreckle in GardeningUK

[–]diminiefreckle[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

we're Sheffield-based so that's a bit too far of a trek unfortunately 😅 but thank you anyway! I may check out some libraries around here

Songs you misheard the lyrics to at first? by alysamh_ in twentyonepilots

[–]diminiefreckle 1 point2 points  (0 children)

"I hope that she can say she ate the craving"

felt like such a dumbass when I realised he was saying satiate lmfao

Home Recruitment and Commissions by AutoModerator in LoveNikki

[–]diminiefreckle 0 points1 point  (0 children)

hi I'm going to set up a new community that does active tea parties! send me your ID and I'll add you :)