Hospital nightmare

[Frustratedandscaredmum]

Ok good people of MN I need some advice please, NC'd as this could be outing.

My ds has asd and adhd and has been under the care of a pediatrician for his adhd medication he was last seen on 10/12/18 with a review date of may 2019. Due to staff shortages he hasn't been seen.
Unfortunately his medication is no longer effective as is wearing off by lunch time so I managed to get an emergency appointment with a prescribing pediatric pharmacist for last Tuesday, all good or so I thought.

Unfortunately the pharmacist was a incompetent jumped up know it all who couldn't even be bothered to read my ds notes. She actually laughed at my ds and I on numerous occasions and tried to get me to imitate ds autistic ticks (in front of ds) and made inappropriate comments about his school, claimed to know more about adhd than ds's pediatrician and then at the end told us that she doesn't believe children should take adhd medication. However she did in the end agree to give ds a 14 day trial of a top up dose at lunch time. This is where my concerns were raised as although the pharmacist stated that it's standard practice for a 5mg dose to be given but the tablets are really small and fiddly so she prescribed a 10mg dose as the tablets are bigger.

Now I left and immediately phoned in a formal complaint about the pharmacists conduct and the way she treated my ds and asked for another appointment but with his pediatrician. I was told that I'd be called back that day. I wasn't! I phoned back Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Monday,Tuesday, Wednesday and again today always told the same., until today when I was informed that as I have put in a complaint that a manager has decided that ds cannot have another appointment and no one is allowed to talk to me until this manager does and she won't talk to me until after my complaint has been investigated ie after 24th of October!

On Monday next week ds takes the last of his medication and I can not get him another prescription until he sees a pediatrician so we have no way of getting any atall .
I've added this to my original complaint and they hope to have sorted the appointment side of my complaint by Thursday next week but no promises also no guarantee of a prescription or an appointment with a pediatrician.

If anyone who knows what l can do about this I would greatly appreciate your advice
Ps this is NHS Scotland

Hi OP, no advice as such but I'm disgusted at the way you and your DS have been treated. I'm so glad you've complained about her despicable conduct. How appalling!! Hope you're both OK. Could your GP assist perhaps?

Thanks @chloe
Unfortunately his gp can't prescribe his medication as it's a new medication and his pediatrician needs to tell them that they have to prescribe it and they won't as hasn't seen him

Oh what a palaver for you and your son. They can't keep you waiting like this, it's just terrible!!

I know but that's what they want to do, it just seems like they're punishing ds for me making a complaint

Medical care cannot be withheld because you have put in a complaint. Complain over the head of the manager to a senior clinician eg director of care/medical director. Put a detailed account of delay of review, pharmacist lack of professionalism, manager response etc. in writing.

Dear OP,
The way you and your son have been treated is not acceptable. One of the key principles of complaints management is that you cannot be treated less favourably just because you have made a complaint. I suggest you contact your local Patient advice and support service (PASS) team. They can help you navigate the system and support you to access the help you need. I would suggest you find out who is the clinical director for the service you are using (PASS should be able to help with that) and go directly to them to sort out your son's immediate needs. Good luck.
www.cas.org.uk/pass/how-we-can-help-you

I was going to suggest PALS at the hospital as well, have a look on the hospital website. They will be able to help.

Totally awful to treat you like this.

I like you consider getting a private GP/consultant appointment once per year to review him? That way you know they will at least keep the appointment,

*would you not I like you (though I'm sure I probably do!)

Pals are rubbish. Go to hospital administrator

Thanks for all your advice.
I already have a complaint in with pals they're the 1s investigating.
I will try pass
To be honest I'm at my whits end with this

Try this www.careopinion.org.uk

In Scotland if you post on this website it goes straight into the inbox of your local NHS board’s complaint manager. Start by typing in the name of the Board you live in e.g. Forth Valley.

I would contact your GP surgery to say your son has run out of medication - what are you meant to do. They will know.

Personally I’d be on the phone to your local NHS complaints manager asap tomorrow morning.

Your son can not be denied treatment because he has put in a complaint!!

Try contacting your MP and MSP as well.

Good luck.

Update
Ok I ended up contacting my MSP and shes been great. But things have gone from bad to worse.
After pushing from MSP I was told that a prescription was ready for collection from the hospital I get up there and its for the wrong medication 🤬 que 2 more days of phone calls and emails from myself and MSP for them to write another prescription with the correct medication on it. So I go back to collect it only to be told that they don't have it🤯🤬. After another 3 days of chasing I'm told that it was done and waiting but they had put it the WRONG name on it and I should have known to ask for it under his middle name instead of his 1st name wtf .
On top of this the bloody prescribing pharmacist that I have complained about has contacted DS's school to discuss changes she is wanting to make to my sons medication in a way that made his school think that I was both aware of the planned changes and in agreement with them when in fact I had No knowledge about it nor has anyone ever discussed it with me before or since I'm absolutely raging right now waiting on a call back from complaint department.

Am I being unreasonable in expecting to be involved in any discussion about changing my sons medication/treatment?

Gladypur son has some medicine first of all. You are entirely reasonable in suggesting you should be fully aware of any changes which should be made to your sons medical regime. ( This pharmacist is obviously cimpletely unaware for example that children have school holidays and weekends where their parents are in charge rather than school it seems, heaven knows what she expects would happen then with you having been given no information about his new drug routine.
Clearly she is inexperienced and sounds incapable. She is an outrageously poor communicator by the sounds of ot and seems like she has yet to learn about respect and how parent relationships work.
Follow this all the way through and hound your hospital complaints department. If shes a pharmacist, you could contact the governing body for pharmacists and talk to them. Pharmacists do have to follow strict professional codes and I think can be struck off for inappropriate conduct.