Expanding GP prescribing for ADHD: improved access, shared responsibility, and the importance of getting it right

Australia is undergoing a significant shift in how ADHD is diagnosed and managed in the community.

Victoria has now joined New South Wales, Western Australia, and Queensland in moving toward expanded prescribing pathways that allow appropriately trained general practitioners to diagnose and manage ADHD, including prescribing Schedule 8 stimulant medications within defined regulatory frameworks.

These reforms are being driven by a clear problem: demand for ADHD assessment and treatment has risen sharply, while access to specialist services has not kept pace. Long waiting times, high out-of-pocket costs, and geographical inequity have left many children, adolescents, and adults without timely care.

Enabling trained GPs to play a greater role has the potential to improve access, continuity, and community-based support.

What is changing in Victoria?

The Victorian Government has announced reforms planned for 2026 that will allow GPs to diagnose and treat ADHD in children and adults aged six years and over, provided they complete accredited training and practise within defined prescribing and monitoring frameworks.

The intent is not unrestricted prescribing, but structured expansion of scope for appropriately trained clinicians.

This follows similar developments elsewhere:

Queensland has long supported GP involvement in ADHD prescribing under defined pathways.
Western Australia has expanded shared-care and continuation prescribing arrangements.
New South Wales has introduced pathways allowing trained GPs to manage stable patients and is progressing broader endorsed prescriber models.

What will be required of GPs?

While details vary by state, common requirements include formal training, clear patient eligibility criteria, defined dose limits, ongoing monitoring, and referral pathways for complexity.

These reforms emphasise shared care rather than isolation, with specialists remaining central to complex, high-risk, or diagnostically uncertain cases.

What does this mean for specialists?

Specialists are not being replaced. Rather, their role becomes more focused on:

diagnostic complexity and uncertainty
significant comorbidity
treatment resistance or adverse effects
medico-legal, safeguarding, or high-risk presentations

This redistribution of care can improve system efficiency while preserving specialist input where it is most clinically valuable.

Why comprehensive assessment still matters

Improved access is a genuine positive but access alone is not enough.

ADHD does not exist in isolation, and many conditions can mimic or coexist with ADHD symptoms. These include depression, anxiety disorders, bipolar disorder, personality disorders, trauma-related presentations, intellectual developmental disorders, and specific learning difficulties.

A robust ADHD assessment must go beyond symptom checklists or a single appointment. It requires careful developmental history, collateral information across settings, screening for co-morbid mental health conditions, consideration of trauma and psychosocial context, and assessment of cognitive and learning profiles where indicated.

Treating ADHD without recognising these factors risks misdiagnosis, inappropriate prescribing, or missed opportunities for more effective interventions.

Importantly, the value of a comprehensive assessment extends well beyond its monetary cost.

Getting the diagnosis right supports safer prescribing, better long-term outcomes, appropriate educational and workplace supports, and reduced downstream healthcare and psychosocial burden.

A balanced path forward

Pandion Health strongly supports reforms that improve access to ADHD care within the community.

At the same time, we believe that quality, evidence-based assessment must remain at the forefront of gold standard ADHD care.

The goal is not simply more diagnoses or faster prescriptions, but earlier, safer, and more effective care that recognises the complexity of neurodevelopmental and mental health presentations across the lifespan.

Pandion Health