How a video consultation works

The days between booking and the appointment

Most useful preparation happens in the week before, not in the last ten minutes. Three things take longer than people expect.

• Assemble your medication history, not just your current list. What you have tried, roughly when, the highest dose reached, and why each stopped. A drug abandoned after four days at a low dose has not been tried, and that changes what is offered next.
• Ask your GP surgery for a printed summary, or read your record through the NHS App. It saves guessing at dates and gives the psychiatrist your physical and prescribing history.
• Line up anyone who can fill in gaps. For a suspected developmental condition this matters most: a parent, older sibling or long-standing partner who remembers what you were like. See adult ADHD assessment by video for the evidence that helps.

Questionnaires sent in advance are worth answering honestly rather than carefully: a bad-looking score is more useful than a tidy one.

Identity and safety checks, and why they exist

Expect to be asked for photo identification, to confirm your date of birth and address, and to confirm the address you are actually sitting at, which may not be your home. If you become unwell during the appointment, that is the only way help reaches the right place.

You will also be asked for a phone number that works during the call, your GP details, and often a next of kin. The GMC's guidance on remote consultations is explicit that the same standards apply as face to face, and that a clinician who cannot assess or prescribe safely at a distance should move to an in-person appointment.

Safety questions come up in every assessment, asked plainly: thoughts of harming yourself or others, and whether anything at home is making you feel unsafe. Being asked is routine, not a sign that anyone thinks you are dangerous.

How consent is actually taken

Consent is not one signature at the start. It is taken in pieces, usually verbally, and each can be refused on its own. The NHS sets out that for consent to be valid it must be voluntary and informed, with capacity to decide, and that it can be withdrawn at any point.

• Consent to be assessed by video rather than in person, once you know what that does and does not allow.
• Consent to write to your GP. Separate, and you can decline it, though without a GP letter shared care and NHS prescribing are effectively off the table.
• Consent to any treatment offered: what it is for, the likely benefits, the common side effects and the alternatives.
• Consent to anyone else being present, whether a relative in the room or a trainee observing. Recording the consultation is separate again, and both sides must agree.

What gets written down, and where it travels

Three documents come out of an appointment. The clinical notes stay with the provider. A summary letter goes to you, setting out the history, the diagnosis or working impression, the plan and any monitoring asked of you. With your consent the same summary goes to your GP, which turns a private opinion into something the NHS can act on and matters most for shared care. Any prescription reaches the pharmacy you chose.

Check the summary when it arrives. Dates and doses most often come out wrong, and corrections are far easier in the first fortnight than two years later.

How soon the next appointment usually falls

Follow-up timing follows the treatment, not a calendar. Starting or changing an antidepressant is commonly reviewed within a few weeks, when early side effects show and the first signs of benefit appear. Stimulant titration for ADHD runs in shorter cycles, with a review after each dose change, so reviews cluster in the first months and then stop. Once treatment is stable they stretch out, on a pattern agreed with you.

Rescheduling, and what happens if you miss it

Fees are paid in advance, so the cancellation terms matter. Read them at booking, and check how much notice a free change requires. If something goes wrong on the day, contact the clinic before the slot, not after. If you simply do not join, the appointment is usually treated as used, since the time was held for you.

Being late is different from missing it. A shortened appointment often still works for a review, but a first assessment needs its full hour. Fees and booking have the current details.