referral request returned to GP by Community Paediatrician - Help! (ASD related)

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

Hello

I have one child with a diagnosis 'HF' ASD and she is currently under the care of the community paediatrician and has additional support at school etc. However it is pretty clear to us and the school that our ds aged 11 is also HF asd and he gets additional support at school but needs an official diagnosis to ensure he continues to get that support ( in yr 9 he will go up to high school and will struggle with the transition without the right support and understanding) and ds wants the assessment.

We went to the GP in Nov '15 to request a referral and took a supporting statement from the SENCO at his school and a statement was written by me and ds and the GP said he would request a referral for a community pediatrician to see ds. I decided to chase this up with the Children's Centre today knowing that we have needed to for all of dds appointments.

The secretary informed me that the referral had been returned to the GP - but couldn't tell me why hmm - it had been returned before Christmas but no one contacted us. Frustratingly the people I need to talk to at the GP are in a meeting so I cannot find out more ill after 2pm. Argh.

I am worried that the referral has been rejected. How common is that? Is there any questions I should be asking? I would really appreciate advice and experience of this situation. Thank you. (also posted in SN board)

[AlanPacino]

What/who gave your other dc their diagnosis? I would ask for a direct referral to them. Round our way the community paediatricians are just another hurdle to the actual people who do the diagnostics.

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

The community paediatric development did dds diagnosis, they are who we were being referred to unfortunately due to resource/ funding issues this pathway is not available to children over 10 and there is currently no service available for over 10 under 18 until the health authority get their shit together in Bedfordshire.... I have discovered all this since speaking to the GPRS this afternoon.

[AlanPacino]

Not sure who GPRS is? Can your ask for out of county pathway? Also don't assume there is no provision based on one individuals feedback. I was told there was no adult ADHD diagnostic services for my adult dd but found out out incidentally there was, a few months later but just ring around a bit. I know we shouldn't have to but such is the way of these things.

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

Sorry stupid predictive text! GP is what I meant. I have spoken to clinical commissioning authority and local AS charity so it's true but I shall be seeing gp next week and shall ask for private/ out of area referral. So should be ok, I think services are so badly resourced in this area that the children's development team have resorted to brinkmanship to get the ASD diagnosis pathway for adolescents fully resourced, I am not unsympathetic, but equally I don't want ds to fall between the cracks.

[AlanPacino]

Oh good, so you have a plan. Hope j didn't sound rude suggesting you didn't take what the GP said as gospel. Just that sometimes not all bodies know of new or upcoming services.

[bigmouthstrikesagain]

No offence taken - I am 50x more well informed since I started this thread after an afternoon ringing around and google researching the process. I want to know what to ask for when I go back to GP - the SN board has been incredibly helpful as well. I am still pretty pissed off because if I had not chased up the referral I would still be blissfully ignorant of the issue and nothing would have been done for ds at all.

In the meantime the local GPs are still woefully uninformed as from what I can tell all the guidelines are still referring to a pathway that no longer exists.