NHS accused of ‘abject failure’ on ADHD as 550,000 await assessment in England

A child in an ADHD therapy office. Prescriptions for ADHD medications have risen 18% year on year since the outbreak of the Covid pandemic. Photograph: Johner Images/Alamy

ADHD campaigners have accused the NHS of presiding over a “widely failing system” as it emerged that as many as 2.5 million people in England could have the condition, with more than half a million people waiting for an assessment.

According to the first figures of their kind published by the health service, 3-4% of adults, and 5% of children and young people, in the country have attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.