Weird hospital letter for Ds

[Crazymumz]

Hi everyone just would like others opinions on this. At the beginning of December my 2 year old son was seen at the local hospital as I was anxious about one of his eyes and he had been referred urgently by the gp to be on the safe side. Because I was anxious I got an appointment first with a peadiatric consultant in the paediatric department who checked him over and said he couldn't see anything to worry about but told me to still take him to his appointment that was booked for him at the eye clinic the following day as they have better equipment to check even more thoroughly. I took him the following day for his app and was seen by the eye casualty doctor who put drops in his eyes and checked them and said again everything looked absolutely fine. Both times I got a discharge paper for him with nothing on on it requiring a follow up. I stupidly forgot to hand these into the desk on the way out which it said to do so but i didn't think it would matter as surely everything would be on record. Anyway today I received a letter saying they have made an appointment for him at the eye clinic for April. I was confused by this as I thought that was his appointments over. He had been seen, checked over and that was it. I phoned up and the woman at the app desk said I didn't attend an app with him in January. I told her i never knew anything about this as I didn't receive a letter or anything and she just said oh well thats why another has been made for april. I explained I wasnt even aware my son needed a follow up and she gave me the doctor at the eye clinics receptionists number to call. I phoned her and she said the eye casualty doctor had put there everything looked good and ther was no cause for concern but he wasn't a specialist paediatric eye doctor so that's why theres a referral for them and just ive just to bring him along in April. Now I am panicking. Why wasn't I told he would need to be seen again or do you think its because I forgot to hand the papers in that he was discharged? Does that seem normal or do you think it could be a mix up?. Any opinions on this would be appreciated? I should have really pushed for answers on the phone but I was just a bit shocked by it.

I've got a lot of experience with pediatric eye doctors and I think this is just a case of they like to double and triple check the little ones.

So in your case-
The pediatrics have looked at him, but they're not a specialist in eyes.
The eye doctor looked at him but he's not a specialist in children.
So they need a children's eye specialist to be totally sure. I wouldn't worry about it (though of course as parents we do anyway) it will be them making totally sure everything is okay, on the tiny chance they've missed something.

Thank you for that reply I feel a bit better now . It was just a bit of a shock as I thought because the gp referred under 2 weeks to be careful he would have just been automatically seen by a peadiatric eye doctor. I didn't realise the eye casualty doctor wasn't as it was in the eye clinic.Then when he didn't mention a follow up and said everything looked fine my mind was at rest. Do you think I should push for him to be seen quicker than april then or do you think because 2 has looked at him I should just wait.

I think pushing for a sooner appointment very much depends on what your personal situation is. They way you have to look at is is - does the problem you're worried about need treatment? Will things get worse if he doesn't get the treatment sooner?
If the answer to both of them is yes, then express that to the doctor's and they may be able to pull if forward, but be warned it's unlikely, especially given the covid situation.
Good luck, I'm sure things will be okay

It's probably an error or just a simple follow up. Even if the doctor said to discharge they often change their minds and next time hand the paperwork in it's super important for the staff to provide an outcome.

I think what has probably happened is the GP wanted to rule out anything sinister, which a paediatrician and an eye doctor probably would have been able to do. Now they've referred on to a paediatric eye doctor to triple check there's absolutely nothing at all. I've always found with the little ones that they'd rather have extra appointments that are fairly unnecessary than risk missing something. I wouldn't worry.

Thank you everyone. Your all right but of course my worried mind goes into overdrive thinking he must have saw something he was concerned about. Its a never ending cycle of worry when it comes to your kids isn't it.