General pediatrician in UK?

[HamFisted]

In the US, they seem to have a system whereby you take your kids to a pediatrician with any questions or concerns, rather than just a GP. I'd quite like to access something similar but live in the UK. We have private health insurance, but that would send us to a private GP to start with and only if they refer onwards do you get to see a pediatrician. I'd quite like to see someone who specialises in children's health with my questions in the first instance, rather than a jack of all medical trades. (I have a similar question about general OBGYNs in the UK, but that's a subject for a different board.)

Anyone know if general pediatricians even exists in this country?

*exist

That's just not how healthcare in the UK works - GPs are gatekeepers in the UK. In most other countries you can self refer and GPs are less swamped because people don't need to go through them for everything, but the UK is different.

No way around it then? I did wonder if there was a system you could pay for to go direct to a regular pediatrician like in the US. A regular doctor who specialises in children's health and can get to know your child and their medical history over the years, rather than the status quo.

Medical training is different in the two countries.
US paediatricians & gynaecologists train to be the the front door. Uk ones don’t but GPs do. So you essentially get the same service from someone with a different badge on.

Even if you did find what you want there's nothing to say they will actually know your child out of the hundreds or thousands of other patients they see! Only way to guarantee this is by having a GP in a village practice where they don't have vast numbers of patients.

I come from South Africa which has a similar system to the U.K. with regard to Obgyns and Pediatricians. My oldest is now 9 and so I have accepted that the U.K. works differently. You don’t see a paediatrician unless there is a specific more complex issue which a paediatrician needs to deal with. For the most part you don’t even see a GP for regular check-ups as health visitors do that.

I have a high level of private medical aid but it doesn’t cover regular paed visits either unless there is something wrong. I had both of my kids privately and had to pay a fortune to do so as I couldn’t get my head around not having a dedicated obgyn!

There are a few medical aids who provide expat cover and cover private birth but the premiums are about £1k per month and you have to be on the plan for about 12 months before you can claim for birth so it was easier for me to just pay privately and with my first I only realised when I was pregnant already!

When I look back I think I have probably wasted a fortune on private medical care and the NHS is extremely good and a US think tank even placed it above most private systems in the world.

You can try - a random google brings up possible leads, but its generally just not how healthcare in the UK works regardless of whether you are able and willing to pay or not.

www.bmihealthcare.co.uk/treatments/paediatrics#na

www.privatehealth.co.uk/doctors-and-health-professionals/paediatrician/

A couple of years ago, I had a nanny job in London where I had to take the children to a paediatrician on Harley Street for normal, gp stuff like colds, nappy rash, upset tummies. I think the parents just paid the fee rather than going through insurance.

Having had lots of experience of taking children to gp appointments over the years, I would say that the only difference between the gp and the paediatrician was that the paed had a fancier room and spent more time with you, but the advice and treatment were pretty much the same.

Unless your child has complex health needs OP you will mostly only see a GP to get an antibiotics prescription for whatever they've picked up in school anyway, hardly worth the fuss of a separate doctor.

I never hear much good about the American pead system to be honest - mostly men giving poor advice about breastfeeding and weaning and over-medicalising normal childhood experience....

Things work very differently in the UK.

I'm a general paediatrician. If, say, your child develops sepsis secondary to chickenpox and needs emergency stabilisation, yes I can do that. If they just have common or garden chickenpox? Well, I've almost never seen that, because they see the GP. Acute severe asthma? Yep, definitely in the job description. Bit of a wheeze? Not my thing.

If you live in London you can probably find someone who'll charge you through the nose to do a job they never trained for. Rest of the country, especially outside the big cities? Well, I know for a fact that none of the general paediatric consultants in my hospital do any private work.

Well, that's disappointing but not entirely unexpected. Thanks anyway.

@nocoolnamesleft Can I be cheeky and ask if you've any opinion of the chickenpox vaccine?

Another thing I will add is that, as an expat, I thought of GPs as “just a GP” but in the U.K. they are as highly trained in general medicine as a consultant is in one area of medicine.

In London you can self refer to a private paediatrician as long as you pay. It is also possible to claim it on medical insurance if you say you have seen the GP. For straight forward stuff there is no point but if you feel you are not getting anywhere on the NHS could be worth a one off self referral and pay for it. Private hospitals in London have paediatricians and obviously there is the Portland which specialises.

BTW exactly the same applies to gynaecologists. You can self refer privately no problem as long as you pay. If a GP says you need a referral you can then just do it privately on or off insurance