MPs call for civil servant to avoid private ADHD clinic review

Four Labour and Liberal Democrat members of parliament are demanding that a senior civil servant play no part in plans to regulate private neurodiversity clinics, the Guardian reported. The lawmakers raised conflict of interest concerns regarding Samantha Jones, who serves as the permanent secretary at the Department of Health and Social Care. [1]

According to the Guardian, the MPs want Jones to step away from ministers' efforts to toughen oversight on private attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and autism assessments. They stated that her recent links to a major private provider of ADHD assessments create a conflict of interest in overseeing the expanding market. [1]

As FTMQ News reported earlier, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder has been connected to broader health concerns in recent research. A University of Pittsburgh study of more than 187,000 adults aged 50 and older found that adults with ADHD face more than four times the risk of developing dementia or mild cognitive impairment. [3]