ADHD prescribing and monitoring

Suffolk and North East Essex (SNEE) ICB is establishing a prescribing and monitoring service for ADHD medications. This service will take on the primary care responsibilities as defined by the shared care agreements for these medications. This service is being set up in response to receiving formal notice from the Suffolk Local Medical Council (LMC) and North & South Essex LMC that they have advised GP practices in SNEE to decline from participating in shared care agreements for ADHD medications for this cohorts of patients. This includes withdrawing from existing shared care agreements.

This service will share care for patients who are under the care of Norfolk and Suffolk Foundation Trust (NSFT) and Essex Partnership University Foundation Trust (EPUT) that deliver commissioned pathways by SNEE ICB.

The objectives of the service are to:

• Provide patients with appropriate and safe care outside of the secondary care setting.
• Improve patient access to services.
• Deliver an innovative approach to service provision.
• Demonstrate improved quality and effectiveness of services for patients.

The service shall be available to all patients within SNEE who are registered with a GP practice within West Suffolk, Ipswich and East Suffolk, or North East Essex and under the care of NSFT (SNEE ICB commissioned all age ADHD pathway) or EPUT (SNEE ICB commissioned Adults ADHD pathway) who have been diagnosed with ADHD and are being prescribed one or more of the medications. Access to the service is by referral from NSFT or EPUT.

The provider will accept new patients who have been diagnosed with ADHD, have completed a minimum of 12 weeks of titration and has been stabilised on treatment by NSFT or EPUT and patients referred into the service by NSFT or EPUT who were previously prescribed and monitored by their SNEE GP practice.

NHS Suffolk and North East Essex Integrated Care Board are awarding the contract named within this notice due to an urgent circumstance which is outlined within the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.

This contract will start on the 1st April 2025 for 12 months (1 year).

There will be an option to extend by a further 12 months (1 year) from 1st April 2026 - 31st March 2027

The value of this contract is an estimation based upon all patient data available at the time, therefore there is the potential for variation once the entirety of the circumstances and the number of shared care arrangements are understood with greater detail.

The ICB may wish to introduce additional services during the lifetime of the contract ("Contract modifications"). Such contract modifications will be contemplated where additional requirements are similar and or complementary to the services already included in the Specification, at any given time. Such expansion would be by the addition of services commissioned by the Authority as named in the Contract Notice. To this end, after the award of contract, there is a possibility that the contract may be varied as allowable in accordance with the Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023.