Book an Appointment

For your first appointment please always choose 'Doctor - New Patient'. For young people, these are provided by Dr Sasha Hvidsten, Dr Prasanna and Dr Syed Mehdi.

For adults please see Dr Henderson. 

We think it's important for you to see a psychiatrist at the start of your patient journey. You can choose to be seen remotely or in person.  We offer a psychiatry appointment first to form the first stage of your diagnostic assessment. This leads to improved treatment planning and in our experience and better outcomes.  It also means that nothing important is missed.

ID is required at your first appointment, please have this available. For example a passport or school ID, or driving license. We ask that children under 16 do not attend on their own. If there is paperwork you want to bring with you, then please do, but this is not necessary. Alternatively you can email information to us prior to the appointment, if you wish.  

This takes up to 1 hour. You will receive a report of this appointment, 10 working days later or less.

It is very difficult for us to make a proper assessment of your child / young adult if they are not able to attend. Please consider booking an online appointment if you think this might be easier for them to engage with this. If your child is unable to engage with the appointment, we can still ask parents questions. We can offer help and assistance and guide you as best we can. We won't be able to make a diagnosis or offer treatment though.  

If we have not prescribed medication for you, perhaps only completing an assessment, then you don't need to see us again if you don't want to. If we have prescribed medication then we need to see you for regular review and follow up appointments. This is to make sure you are not having any side effects and also to make sure the treatment is working. Sometimes for example we may need to change the dose. At the age of 18 your GP may agree to prescribe, but we will make sure this is all communicated so there is no confusion. 

If this occurs - please contact the office directly (enquiries@sashahvidsten.com) and we will try and arrange this for you. But please try and remember to book your follow up appointments as soon as they are agreed, to save disappointment. The clinic is very busy. We may be able to offer you an alternative clinician if the wait is too long. 

There is a cancellation policy. A full refund is issued if the appointment is cancelled  with over 48 hours notice.  You can do this by email enquiries@sashahvidsten.com

A comprehensive first appointment is necessary prior to any testing. This is to make sure we are thorough and nothing is missed. Sometimes a different diagnosis may be relevant and this needs to be discussed before any testing can be agreed.

We often find that families have tried to research and learn about a diagnosis ahead of their appointment. There are many information sources on the internet, but not all of them are accurate. We know this can be very confusing. Sometimes it may be that the wrong diagnosis is being considered and we don't want you to do the wrong assessment. 
Often there can be more than one thing going on and it is best to talk about this with the doctor in your first appointment. 

This is why we always start with a psychiatric assessment, to help guide your treatment from the very start. 

For a new patient / first appointment with a psychiatrist, this is £600. Other appointment and assessment costs are listed on the prices page which you can visit via the following link: Dr Sasha Hvidsten - Costs and Fees.  But if you need any help wth this please email us or call.