The NSW government announced today that the second stage of ADHD reforms is set to start this March.
The cogs are gaining momentum in NSW as the state reaches its second stage of implementing GPs into ADHD care.
The ACT government has also kicked off its own reforms, announcing today that trained GPs will be to write continuation scripts for patients already diagnosed with ADHD.
Further reforms in the territory are expected later in the year.
So far, the NSW government has reported that close to 600 GPs across the state have expressed interest in undertaking training to be able to diagnose ADHD.
This will qualify said GPs as ‘endorsed prescribers’, meaning that they can prescribe psychostimulants in newly diagnosed patients aged six years and above.
Training spots are currently limited in the early stages of the initiative but rural/regional GPs and those practicing in Aboriginal community-controlled settings will be prioritised.
This approach was reflected in the latest statistics for the initiative, with a reported 41% of ADHD-prescribing practices located outside of metro Sydney.
It comes after major reforms September 2025 enabled GPs to train to become ‘continuation prescribers’ to repeat ADHD prescriptions for patients with an existing diagnosis.
So far, 800 specialist GPs have completed training to continue ADHD prescriptions in NSW, allowing over 5000 patients to benefit from the scheme.
“We estimate about 6% of adults and about 10% of kids have ADHD,” RACGP ADHD spokesperson Dr Chris Timms told The Medical Republic.
“That equates to [between] 500,000 and 600,000 patients across New South Wales.
“We know that under-diagnosis has traditionally been a huge concern, particularly for the classic case of the inattentive type ADHD in females, where they were just diagnosed as the quiet girl in class, but they get to their 30s and 40s, and it’s actually a missed ADHD diagnosis.
“There has been a lot of work put in to ensure that when we do these assessments, we’ll do long, complex assessments, and that way we get the right diagnosis for the patient.”
As for the next stage of reforms, the RACGP has advocated for a national harmonisation framework in alignment with other professional bodies.
“The [current] framework in New South Wales has been built collaboratively between the Royal Australian College of GPS, the Royal Australian New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, and the New South Wales Government,” Dr Timms told TMR.
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“Patients will be able to seek diagnosis and treatment at the GP level in their local GP surgery from a good GP who knows them well.
“That said, there will always be a few complex patients who will probably need psychiatric or paediatric input, and they can be co-managed or managed with those non-GP specialists, depending on complexity.”
