The NHS risks being 'overwhelmed' by unprecedented levels of autism and ADHD, ... trends now
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Unprecedented levels of autism and ADHD referrals risk overwhelming the health service, a report warns.
Doctors are referring five-times more patients for autism assessments than in 2019, while the number prescribed medication for ADHD is up 51 per cent.
Health leaders warn it is 'impossible to imagine' how the NHS can expand fast enough to cope with the 'extraordinary, unpredicted and unprecedented' rise in demand for these services.
The Nuffield Trust think tank, which produced the report, says the growth in demand has been fuelled by changing social attitudes and better awareness.
It comes after figures published by NHS Digital last month revealed the number of patients waiting for an autism assessment in England is at its highest level since current data started in April 2019.
Unprecedented levels of autism and ADHD referrals risk overwhelming the health service
Former Bake Off host Sue Perkins (left) last year shared that she had been diagnosed with ADHD and that 'suddenly everything made sense - to me and those who love me'. Love Island's Olivia Atwood (right) said ADHD made her 'constantly overwhelmed'
Some 172,040 people were on waiting lists as of December 2023, up from 117,020 a year earlier and more than five times the 32,220 recorded in December 2019.
Although the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) recommends people with suspected autism should be diagnosed within three months of a referral, some 147,070 patients had been waiting at least 13 weeks in December, more than six times the 24,250 in December 2019.
People who had a first appointment for suspected autism between October and December last year had waited an average of over nine months to be seen following their referral, compared to four months during the same period in 2019.
Meanwhile, there was a 51 per cent increase in the number of patients prescribed
