To consider this a child protection issue

[strawberrycake]

I'm thinking of raising a child protection complaint with a hospital.

Scenario: Baby from birth gains weight very slowly, no concrete diagnosis after first visit. Considered probably allergic to milk but no tests done. Baby has gone from the 75th to 9th centile (then 2nd). Mother cancels next appointment then fails to attend the next to see if baby is now gaining weight on new milk (he isn't). Hospital in response discharge baby for non-attendance. They do not inform HV/ GP/ parents of this.

Would this to you raise a red flag as a child potentially at risk of abuse, known health problems and poor weight gain and parents can't be bothered to attend any appointments for him? Should the hospital be flagging this up to GP/ HV so they can chase up if there's any issues such as PND with the mother or home problems that have caused health problems in the child, particularly in light of their failure to attend hospital appointments?

(By the way this is all from the hospitals point of view. I did not cancel the first appointment, they did as an admin error. I did attend the second but reception did not sign me in as having attended so records show I didn't)

So this is your baby?

Yes mine, I'm not neglecting him!

Good . I think you should discuss it with your health visitor/GP/consultant (whichever you think) but you need to be clear about what you are trying to achieve.

Child protection involves communication. The cases of baby P etc proved an acute lack of communication. Given the story you have outlined here I would suggest no lessons on communication between key agencies have been learned. So I don't think you are BU.

That really bad. What's happening now?

strawberry I have seen your other thread about wanting to complain to the hospital about the problems surrounding your DS's appointment.

TBH I think raising this, presumably in an attempt to validate your genuine complaint is going to appear strange and distract from the point that you really want to make and have dealt with, namely that you feel you were treated badly.

I'm complaining separately about his care in general.

Is this case I'd be hoping they adopt better practice when caring for vulnerable children and hopefully avoid further cases similar to the sad case of Baby P and others. It's quite shocked me how they discharge sick children for non-attendance regardless of their health and without informing other HCPS.

From your OP it also sounds like your GP has not been given any letter regarding the consultation that you did have at the hospital?

Have you sort help regarding your baby?

if a baby crosses 2 centile lines that is a serious cause for concern.

splashy- I know that and have talked to about 15 bloody people about it by now and I'm just passed in circles from one to another and let down time and time again. That's a whole separate issue. His care has been disgusting. I have today emailed people, spoken to and phoned people but it's like a fucking brick wall. Short of a sit-in in children's outpatients I don't know.

A a person who works alongside a Child Protection dept in a hospital, yes it would be an issue to them - but this isn't as dramatic as it sounds. They will talk to all your health contacts (HV, GP etc) and realise it's a shut and close case of mis-communication, as IWTH has pointed out. However they are there to support the parents, as well as the child. For instance, they have recently assisted a very young couple who had no idea how to care for child, by getting them in contact with the appropriate support and guidance they didn't seem to be getting elsewhere.

All that being said, I would rather they "investigated" such situations, rather than didn't. I don't know the statistics but I would guess that for every case they have, 1 out of 5 have been serious enough to get help/support for the child/parent.

But this last appointment was fairly recent no?

There is no reason to suggest that they wont in fact be contacting your GP or other HCP's in the near future (I'd expect it to take a while since they will write, the post is horrendously delayed at the moment due to snow/christmas) and presumably just becasue you haven't yet heard from anyone doesn't mean the ssue has not been flagged elsewhere.

evis- no letter from the last appointment either until I chased it up.

It's been 3 weeks since the 'missed' appointment and the GP/ HV don't know it was 'missed'. They don't appear to have told anyone about his discharge/ non-attendance.

At this time of year with snow and various things having happened, 3 weeks is nothing - there could be a letter on a tape in a typing pool's tray still waiting to get typed with staff absence and admin staff at a bare minimum.

If you complain I'd imagine they are probably going to say there was a letter in the post or about to be.

I would focus on your original complaint and if nothing comes of it, then they have no real intention to improve by the sounds of it and there's possibly not a lot more that can be done unless there is a higher body - PALS? Or whatever they are called?

I'm not sure you will get far complaining of the possibility of what they did being wrong for a hypothetical scenario that doesn't exist. I think it only tends to hold weight when their actions HAVE actually resulted in a neglected child coming to harm, then it will get taken seriously. This hasn't happened. Its my experience that with the NHS its hard enough to get somewhere complaining when something bad actually happens than that something might have happened. Might be wrong but I can't decide whether you should dig your heels in or let it go and not divert their resources even further as it doesn't sound like anything bad actually happened anyway (though don't know the details of your other complaint...)

3 weeks is not long given the current circumstances. In all likelihood there is a letter in its way.

I think complaining about about a possibility that hasn't and wont arise vis a vis your child is a waste of time and will mean your more valid concerns will be overlloked.

Strawberry - in cases where my ds has attended hospital appointments letters to my gp took around 8 weeks (way too long but still).

However I hate the rules too surrounding childrens care if they miss two appointments they are discharged, as this part happened to ds too.

I would possibly give it another week, to see if any letters have been sent to the gp, if not try calling the hospital to chase them up (apologies if you have done this)

Littlemarshmallow, maybe I'm too new to it all. Last time it shocked me with the times they ran on. At 3 months he was diagnosed allergic to milk and was losing weight weekly. It took over a month for them to communicate the new milk prescription and supplements to GP, after waiting a month for the appointment then 2 weeks for ordering/ prescribing. It seemed so cruel to establish what a child was eating was causing them pain and preventing their growth and then leave them on in for another month, surely a quick fax along the lines of 'please prescribe xxx for xxx' would be appropriate? I do feel had everything been dealt with sooner he would not now be so small, he's wearing 0-3 clothing at nearly 7 months due to long periods of no weight gain. Everyone who sees him expresses amazement to see a tiny baby like him to be sitting up on his own and rolling and nearly crawling. He is lighter than some of my friends' 3/4 month old so it look odd when he is so advanced for his apparent size.

Hope LO is OK and you too.

Sure they will wish to monitor the situation.
Sounds like an admin issue.

LO is a happy bunny thanks, just ickle. He's 13.4lb at nearly 7 months after being born at 9.3lb. Not massively concerned for his immeadiate well-being but I would like some points addressed.