Pediatrician?

[chris54]

This point was raised at a recent public meeting I attended about a special school. To get straight to the point it was raised that not all children with a diagnosis for ASD have a Pediatrician. Where we live at least, unless you have on going issues that need regular input you are discharged by the pediatrician. If you need any input from one (ie Statement) you have to get a referral from your GP which can take an age.

Last time we did this all the pediatrician did was read the notes we gave her and confirmed that nothing had changed (Her report just duplicated what we told her (the notes)) and were promptly discharged. Not that we need any input at this stage but I was just wondering what others experience.

[Lynden]

We have an 'open referral' so although we don't see our Paed regularly and haven't done for 2-3 years, we are still on the system so if we need to see them we just call the CDC and don't have to go through the GP. It works well for us as we rarely need to see him, but when we did, to get melatonin for example it was quick and easy.

 

Lynne

[Sally44]

We have the same system as above, which is really useful.

So if we need to see her I just phone up her secretary to book an appointment.

And because you know you can get a quick appointment if you need it, you tend not to need it - if you get my drift.

She also comes to the local NAS group meetings and is available for any parents that want to talk to her. All in all she is very good.

[BusyLizzie100]

My eldest has been discharged by the paediatrician because she hasn't seen him in a year. She recently told me that if we need her input we would need a new GP referral. It's a strange situation, because he currently needs a lot of input but ostensibly is getting it from the psychologist at CAMHS (although he isn't). I did seek her input because the CAMHS folk are driving me mad by doing nothing, but that's the situation.

 

On the other hand she hasn't seen my middle son for over a year either, but she continues to prescribe melatonin so his case is still open.

 

And I saw her just a fortnight ago about my youngest, so theoretically he's got a year's credit to go!!!

 

I think that you if you require input for statutory assessment the LA will write to the paediatrician and ask him/her to see your child - time limits surely come in to play at that point so perhaps a long wait would be avoided?

 

Lizzie x

[chris54]

 

I think that you if you require input for statutory assessment the LA will write to the paediatrician and ask him/her to see your child - time limits surely come in to play at that point so perhaps a long wait would be avoided?

 

Lizzie x

 

Cant say for how it works elsewhere, but in our case we had to see the GP to get a referral, the first appointment was with the wrong person, which left just days to get the report back before the dead line.

The LA cant write to the paediatrician as we don't have one!

[BusyLizzie100]

Cant say for how it works elsewhere, but in our case we had to see the GP to get a referral, the first appointment was with the wrong person, which left just days to get the report back before the dead line.

The LA cant write to the paediatrician as we don't have one!

 

Interestingly, though, the LA wrote to Social Services to get their advice as part of DS2's initial statutory assessment, although we weren't known to social services at that time, so there was nothing they could say.

 

The LA has to seek medical advice from somewhere as part of the statutory assessment; if you have no paediatrician, would they write to the GP? Interesting.

 

Lizzie x

[Sally44]

As well as the Developmental Paediatrician that we saw who gave us the formal diagnosis and with whom we have an open appointment. There have also been paediatricians associated with the schools. We have seen two different ones. We last saw the paediatrician as part of the re-assessment. So I suppose there are two paediatricians we have access to, one via health and one via education.

The LA wrote to the 'education' paediatrician for their input, but not the NHS paediatrician who diagnosed him.