Sector is overwhelmed by demand and expanding faster than administrative structures can support
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hen Craig, not his real name, started as a clinician for a private ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder) clinic in the spring of 2023, he was pleased by how thorough the training was and how seriously the organisation seemed to take clinical standards.
“The training and clinical supervision there were the best I’ve ever experienced in any organisation,” he said. “They truly invested in developing their staff … a consultant paediatrician would often sit in on assessments to observe and provide detailed feedback.”
But issues at the company emerged over time: the workload was massive and the quality of the clinical work did not seem to carry through into the reports sent to patients and GPs, which were often done by administrative staff to save time. “Over the 13 months I was there, I never actually saw a single report that appeared to have been written by me, even though they were sent out under my name,” he says. “I believe that was the core issue.”
