Sustaining improvements in ADHD diagnosis
Following the end of the three-year Focus ADHD national programme in March 2023, adoption of the objective assessment technology QbTest has continued to accelerate across NHS healthcare providers.
The end of programme inflection chart (below) summarises spread at March 2023: adopted within 69 NHS trusts across 137 sites, benefiting 55,000 young people during the three year programme, and freeing up clinical time (including a 19% release of clinical time in paediatric services).
Since then, data provided by the innovator Qbtech points to ongoing legacy impacts. For example during 2023-2024:
- QbTest was adopted within a further 15 NHS trusts.
- An extra 15,861 patients benefited.
- As a result of the HIN national programme, by April 2024, 71,102 patients had benefited.
HIEM was the lead HIN for Focus ADHD, working closely with the other 14 HINs to ensure learning from each area was shared and benefits were communicated widely to maximise the chances that improvements were sustained after the programme ended.
On-going engagement around the programme impacts also maintained system interest (for example, publication of the Network blueprint in October 2023 ‘Implementation, Readiness and Resourcing’, which was promoted by the King’s Fund).
