We provide a self-pay service for people who have depression which has not responded to other treatments.

Before offering you an assessment we assess your suitability for treatment by reviewing a referral letter from your GP or psychiatrist and other required documents.

If we can offer you an assessment, you will complete on-line daily mood monitoring and questionnaires before the assessment meeting.

Assessment meetings are usually online, but we can meet face-to-face if you prefer.

Initial treatment consists of three to six ketamine infusions over three to six weeks.

About 50% respond well and want to continue treatment.  A large majority relapse at some point but then respond to regular, longer-term, maintenance ketamine treatment, which can continue for several years.

About 10% have an unpleasant experience with their first infusion. 

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust’s ketamine service is based at Warneford Hospital, Oxford, OX3 7JX.

The service described here is a ‘self-pay’ or ‘private’ service which is provided by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust (OHFT).  All potential patients must establish their own funding arrangements.

Patients who live in Oxfordshire or Buckinghamshire and who are formally referred to the service by a consultant psychiatrist who is employed by Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust may be considered for treatment funded by OHFT, ie ‘on the NHS’.  The processes for this group are similar to those described in this website except that direct referral by a GP is not possible.  The referral for OHFT-funded treatment must come from an OHFT consultant psychiatrist.  If you then have ketamine treatment, you will remain under the joint care of the OHFT psychiatrist.

A very few patients from areas outside Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire have been able to secure NHS funding for a trial of ketamine using an “Individual Funding Request”.  This is made by the patient’s treating psychiatrist or GP to their local Integrated Care Board (ICB), which replaces the Clinical Commissioning Group.  It is described here.  Extracts from this website, including information in the FAQs about likely cost-effectiveness, can be used to support such applications, but we cannot get involved beyond this.  Treatment cannot start until we have a commitment in writing from the ICB to pay for the treatment and the details of the person who will process our invoice.  It is important that patients realise that almost all  such applications are unsuccessful because the patient’s problems are not judged to meet the criterion of ‘exceptionality’.  Sadly, it is not exceptional for depression to be very resistant to treatment.

Ketamine is used for depression which has not responded to other treatments.

Its brief rapid antidepressant effect has been confirmed in many several clinical trials over the last 20 years.

Drugs receive a licence if the MHRA approves them as safe and effective for a particular condition. Ketamine is not a licensed treatment for depression. It is used in depression as an ‘off-label’ treatment. Ketamine is licensed as an anaesthetic and for analgesia.  A version of ketamine,  Spravato esketamine nasal spray, has a licence for use in Treatment Resistant Depression alongside an SSRI or SNRI.  It has not been approved by NICE and is therefore not available on the NHS.  It is expensive.  We are happy to provide this for those who would prefer it.  Some details about this are provided in the FAQs.