they would pull out that file
That imaginary file again.
Are there multiple copies of it for every single agency involved to be able to view it at will? I'd wager a big fat no.
One of my child sees a multi-agency medical team on a regular basis and I had to sign all sorts of permission forms to allow each agency to share records with the other agencies. Also had to sign forms for them to request records from agencies no longer involved. Every time a letter or a report is produced by one agency I have to give permission for it to be shared with the others.
The agencies involved include school, SALT, neurology, child development, paediatrics, OT, dietician, physiotherapy, CAHMS, sleep clinic, school nursing team, SEN support from the LA. None of them has access to the others records.
There is no joined up file that all agencies have access to.
In the last couple of years we have had some of the following hospital visits:
- DS fell down a flight of stairs at the leisure centre and wouldn't/couldn't bear weight on his leg. I wasn't with him at the time, I sent him up to use the loo while I waited at the bottom with my other DC. Thankfully no break but he was badly bruised and sore.
- three days later DS fell down our stairs at home while trying to demonstrate (unasked) to DH exactly how he came to fall down the leisure centre stairs, cut his head on the cabinet in the hallway when he hit it so back to hospital
- DD put a bead up each nostril, I got them out but then she announced she also had one in her ear and I couldn't reach that one so had to go to the walk in to have it removed
- my other DS was running with the hosepipe, unsupervised in the garden while I was making sandwiches for lunch, I could hear then but not see them. He tripped on it and cut his arm on the edge of the flowerbed, needed a couple of stitches
- DD tripped over another child at dance class, head first into the mirror and had a huge egg on her forehead. She had a nosebleed a few minutes later, in hindsight almost certainly due to the impact, but one of the staff took her to A&E and rang me to meet them there (I wasn't even on the premises when it happened, total neglect)
Then various trips to out of hours or the walk-in when they've taken ill and haven't been able to wait until the GP is open. We've also had a couple of incidents of swallowed objects and non-food items, mainly the DS I mentioned above who is a chewer and sometimes accidentally eats things he shouldn't.
None of them have been identified as being at risk, no one has been to investigate me, no concerns have been flagged.
The absolute most follow up I had was when the health visitor rang me to have a laugh about "quite the weekend you've had!" when DS fell down the stairs twice within the space of three days.