Your Right to Choose
With ADHD 360

NHS waiting lists for ADHD can be long, and you may consider that in your area the wait time is too long, and you want to explore other options. One such option is using your Right To Choose (RTC) facility. Right To Choose is complex to understand and operate, but here are some bullets that may help you make your decision. Official NHS explanations of Right To Choose are explained here.
You may be aware that you have the ‘right to choose’ a service provider, especially if the service where you live isn’t meeting the standards expected, and over 18 weeks to get treatment is one of the common missed standards.
So what is the Right to Choose?
There is a lot of misunderstanding about Right to Choose, let’s clear some of that up. The legal rights to choice of mental health provider and team apply when:

As in physical health, patients’ legal rights to choice apply following a referral by a GP to any provider that has an NHS Standard Contract with any CCG or NHS England for the required service.
NHS guidance states “Having chosen a provider, the patient must be treated by that provider for the entire episode of care for which the patient was referred (unless the provider does not provide the clinically appropriate service that the patient needs or, in the provider’s reasonable professional opinion, a patient is unsuitable to receive the relevant service, for as long as they remain unsuitable)”
Acting upon advice from NHS England we have interpreted this statement to mean that your assessment and treatment to a point where you are stable and optimised on your medication will be covered by your elected Right To Choose.
There are some exclusions from these legal rights to choice. These are where a patient is:
Please note the following: No prior commissioner approval is required for consultant-led elective care or in the case of mental health, services led by a healthcare professional, where the patient has exercised choice of provider under the legal rights set out in the NHS Constitution. (NHS Document Right to Choose in Mental health v5 available here.
What do you, the patient, have to know?

How to get diagnosis & treatment via Right to choose:
Right to Choose – Now booking for Spring 2024