To worry about not being able to see a paediatrician on the NHS?

[RevoltingPeasant]

Okay, so talk some sense into me, please.

I grew up in the US with private health insurance (obv). My sisters and I saw a paediatrician until we were in our late teens - in fact our 'family doctor' (GP) would not take patients under 16. I think this is normal in other countries as well - my German friend says the same.

We also got check ups really regularly, at least once a year but often more, and especially when we were babies. In fact, my younger sister's extremely aggressive abdominal cancer was first spotted when she was still pre-verbal, just during a routine check up. A few more weeks and it probably would have been untreatable - we are super lucky she lived.

DP and I are planning a family now, so I'm looking into these things, and have been told by friends that it's not normal to take DCs to a paed in this country (except in serious cases in hospital) and that check ups aren't regular if there aren't obvious symptoms. I find this worrying in a general sense, and also because with my family history, there is an increased chance that any baby of mine will develop that form of cancer.

Am I just being extremely precious?? Suffering from culture shock? Or this is genuinely a real gap in the NHS? It just seems.... negligent to me, not to give children routine preventative medicine, especially when they are too young to verbalise properly.

I had my first two children privately in a private London hospital. They were automatically assigned a paediatrician at birth who checked them the day were born, again at 6 weeks and then told me I go and see them whenever I wanted to. We added the kids to our private health insurance policy as they were born.

I haven't ever needed to. We don't really live anywhere near London so it's not convenient whereas the GP is down the road. I can understand your concern as a first time parent but honestly, your kids won't need regular check ups with a consultant paed. I haven't taken my 7 year old to the GP for over a year because there's nothing wrong with him. My 4 year old hasn't been for almost 2 years and my toddler hasn't either. They're healthy kids, developing normally. I sure as hell wouldn't want to take them for regular bloods.

However, if there was something wrong with them and I got no joy from the GP I would go straight to the private paed. That is why we keep the medical insurance going for the whole family. So if there is a problem, we have options on how to deal with it.

In short you need to understand the limitations of the NHS and prepare to work around them and for the most flexibility, you need to pay for medical insurance.

Oh God have also just realised this is a zombie! Sorry!

I know this is a zombie thread but medical insurance only really works the first time you're ill.

I recently dug out ds1's medical insurance because he's had a few issues related to an ongoing lifelong condition recently & I wanted to see if it could be revisited & medication reviewed with a specialist - nah it's an exclusion - along with everything else he's ever had - right down to 'conditions related to eczema' - let alone the complicated, expensive stuff.

Preventative medicine in the form of routine checks across a cohort is not necessarily a wise use of limited resources. The recent reports of the failures in the new-ish "over 50s" "routine health check" policy is a good example. In particular those that take it up tend to be the worried well.

If you are worried about your medical history, you will be able to take your child for check ups with your gp on a regular basis. It's not perfect but it's probably a better use of public resources, given that the overwhelming majority of babies are healthy and don't need oversight by a paediatrician.

A more obvious example of the NHS failing children is the absolutely dire state of NHS paediatric dentistry. I had personal experience of this when my 15 year old needed to see an endodontist due to damage caused by an earlier front tooth break.

I was told by the NHS dentist there was a 10 month waiting list for a paediatric endodontist on the NHS just to carry out an assessment - (not treatment!). In other words the specialism exists on paper but not in reality.

Fortunately I had the £600 needed to see a private endodontist who treated her in under a week and discovered a hidden infection.

Paediatric NHS dentistry is in crisis, with many parents unable to find an NHS dentist for their children and reports of people doing nothing or else resorting to DIY filling kits bought online.

I think it's only natural with something like health to want what you are used to.

I'm pregnant with DC1 atm and while I'm not worried and the care I've recieved has generally been very good I would still prefer it If I could have an obstetrician instead of a midwife and a peadiatrician instead of a HV for when the baby is born. I just think it would be more convenient if you only went to see one person and that person was able to diagnose and prescribe - but I realise that would make everything more expensive. Also, for continuity of care reasons, I'd much rather see the same person every month so they know what was 'normal' for me/the DC without me having to tell them which you sometimes forget to if you are ill/worried.