How to chase up hospital referral?

[ApplesTheHare]

DD has a progressive condition that she can only receive treatment for until the age of 1. It took 5 months to get a GP referral to pediatrics (the GP didn't think she had her condition, but she does) and pediatrics have now officially diagnosed and are referring her to a further specialist. She's now nearly 7 months and I'm conscious her treatment window is getting smaller. How can I best chase up the second referral, or is there anything you can do to speed up the process?

I'm aware this might be stupid question but feel dreadful for not being pushy with the GP in the first place and am so scared that dd won't get the care she needs...

Contact the medical secretary at your doctors, or the consultant's secretary.

Phone up hospital switch board and ask for secretary for relevant speciality or consultant if you have a name, or ask for appointments.

Don't really know, but if you have already seen a consultant at the hospital, phone their secretary directly. Go via the hospital switchboard if you don't have the phone number and ask for Mrs/Mr so-and so's secretary. They have always put me through when I've tried it, and that is usually the person who can get things moving.

Good luck x

Yes, contact the GP sec to make sure that the ref letter has been sent, when and to whom and then contact the secretary of the paediatric consultant your DD has been referred to. They may well pass you to the outpatients dept as secs don't tend to deal with outpatient refs but either way, you should end up knowing what priority DD's referral has been given (whether the paediatrician graded it as requiring a routine, urgent or soon appointment slot) where she is in the queue and how long the waiting times are currently for that consultant.
That info - the priority, waiting times and where she is in the outpatients queue is more likely to be known by the outpatients admin team, rather than secs tbh.

If your hospital has a centralised appointments team, they can make the bookings as long as the LO is on the clinic list- this is how ours works.

I have lots of appointments for various children and the day I made friends with 'Susan' (my favourite and most helpful appointment booker) was a very good day!

She knows we turn up to every one and will often call us if there is a cancellation to see if we want the slot, and is equally as helpful when we need to rearrange.

I would imagine that as you are time-bound, someone at your hospital would be able do that for you.

Hope you get a good outcome!

Call the secretary of the paeds consultant you saw. They'll know if the referral letter is about to be dictated/about to be typed/on the desk awaiting signing/already sent off. If it hasn't gone off yet (you hadn't said when your appt with the consultant was - personally I'd prefer a system where there was time within the clinic to dictate on the spot, but sadly managers don't necessarily agreee with me...), then they're in the best position to hassle the consultant. If it has gone off, they're probably in the best position to find out if it has arrived at the far end, and if it has been acted on. After all, it's the secretaries that run the consultants.

Thank you so much for the advice everyone, I'm going to get on this tomorrow

SO glad I chased this with the secretary as it turns out the referral has been written but not signed or sent , so they've now got it down as an urgent referral. I realise this probably doesn't mean much but at least I've done something to try and help dd, though I did feel guilty talking to the secretary as of course no child is more important than any other. It must be so hard trying to fit them in as it is...

Thanks fixyou I just feel bad for others parents/children where maybe the parent isn't informed or confident enough to chase. What happens to those poor children...?