Primary Care Colleagues
Every patient has a right to make an informed choice about services provided or paid for by the NHS as part of the NHS Constitution.
Choice allows patients to pick where to be seen from a list of approved NHS-contracted services. This means if patients meet the eligibility criteria, they can choose an organisation for their assessment and treatment, funded by the NHS.
It is important to ensure the chosen organisation has an NHS contract. If the patient opts for a private provider without an NHS contract, they would be responsible for the costs, including any follow-up treatments.
There is currently no national central directory of right to choose providers for neurodiversity assessments. However, ADHD UK hold a list of Right to Choose providers for both ADHD and Autism assessments with an option to join their mailing list to be notified regarding new providers. Information can be found here: Right to Choose – ADHD UK.
Following interest from local neurodiversity providers, work is underway at NHS Dorset to create an accreditation framework and contract with those providers who meet the accreditation requirements. Through accreditation NHS Dorset will seek evidence providers can meet highest standards of safety, quality, and governance to ensure patients receive safe, effective, and integrated care under the NHS Standard Contract.
In line with the right to choose guidance, if patients wish to exercise their right to choose, they need to approach their GP.
Whilst the work concludes locally, we would advise Primary Care to utilise available online resources such as ADHD UK or the National Autistic Society.
If you do need to make a referral to a Right to Choose provider whilst the NHS Dorset framework is being established, please ensure you use encrypted email and password protect any documentation that you need to send. This will enable you to demonstrate that you have secured any patient identifiable information during transfer to the provider in order to meet your data protection responsibilities.
In addition, this document sets out several useful communication resources.