Why Doesn’t My GP Understand ADHD & What’s Really Happening in the 10-Minute Appointment

If you've ever left a GP appointment feeling dismissed, confused or like you had to fight to be taken seriously, this episode will help you understand why, and what you can actually do about it.

On this week's episode of The ADHD Women's Wellbeing Podcast, I'm joined by Dr Victoria Galvis, a GP based in Greater Manchester with over 20 years of lived experience of neurodivergence and a fierce passion for changing how the healthcare system supports neurodivergent people.

Victoria qualified as a doctor in Colombia and has been practising in the UK since 2010, working across both hospital medicine and primary care. Alongside Dr Safiya Virji, GP and Associate Professor at Queen Mary University of London, she has written Neurodivergence in Primary Care: A Practical Guide for UK Healthcare Professionals, a comprehensive, research-backed resource designed to educate clinicians and support patients in navigating the system more effectively.

In this episode, Victoria explains the structural reasons why GPs often don't know enough about ADHD and neurodivergence, and it is not as simple as them not caring. She talks about the discrimination she faced as a neurodivergent doctor, why the 10-minute consultation is both a challenge and something patients can learn to work with, and how the book came about from 20 years of clinical experience and a determination to change things for her son, her patients and the next generation of healthcare professionals.

In this episode, we cover:

Why GPs receive less than two hours of ADHD training and have zero budget to update their knowledge

How media narratives and ableist assumptions about ADHD have shaped clinical attitudes

Victoria's own experience of disability discrimination as a neurodivergent doctor, and why she kept going

Why ADHD and autism could not even be co-diagnosed until 2013, and what that means for the doctors currently practising

How the 10-minute GP consultation works, and practical ways to make the most of it

Why bringing a list to a GP appointment is genuinely helpful, not annoying

How to ask for the right GP in your practice for your specific needs