What is a community paediatrician actually for?

[emkana]

I thought they were meant to ensure that everything was done that needed to be done. But when I went in with ds yesterday he had just patronized me to death ("Mrs Emkana, all mothers worry about their children starting school"), and when I raised concerns about ENT and SALT he just didn't want to know at all.

ours is fab

dd has about 10 other consultants involved, comm paed kind of ties it all together, looks at big picture

and signs all the forms

that's what i'd expect from yrs. Not cack patronising comments. Can you swap him?

Ours is her main medical guy, so deals with her epilepsy. He is the 'lead clinician'. He refers to other professionals, and writes reports to the GP and other pros with the latest on DD1. He arranged our blue badge (well, we applied, he filled in the medical form they sent).

But, he said to me last year "I can only ask people to do stuff. I can't do it, and I can't make them do it."

So, if you have SALT concerns, you need to raise it with the SALT dept. Phone and ask to speak to a manager.

Re: ENT, perhaps phone and ask to speak to the Audiology department, or ENT themselves.

I've encountered one utter awful one and one good one. The good one wrote a brilliant report for his stat assessment, has done referrals for hearing tests, continence nurse etc etc. I won't go into what the awful one said! Would your GP refer you to a different one?

emkana our paed was absolutely useless too, patronising and obviously thought I was an over anxious mum. It didn't help that my dd behaved beautifully at appointments with her though.

It was a bit of a battle but she finally (after about a year) admitted she had got it wrong. It took me an appointment without dd and having a bit of a bawl for her to take notice.

She referred dd to OT and Slt and Camhs. We've had brill input from OT service and Slt did a thorough assessment over the course of 10 months but have been waiting close to 2 years for appoinment with Camhs. This appt feels like the 'golden ticket' as we have no answers yet. Sensory Ot has chased up Camhs and hopefully we should be seen in the next month or two.

Paed won't give any indication of what possible dx may be but sensory Ot is far more forthcoming and I fully expect a dx of Dyspraxia, when we finally get an appointment.

Was this your first appointment with paed? How was it left? Our first one was left at 'I will see dd in 6 months for a review, everything seems fine' It's been a bit of a waiting game unfortunately.

We see him once a year.

Trouble is that ds has a physical condition (short-limbed dwarfism) which isn't usually associated with learning or emotional difficulties, so I think comm paed thinks I'm making it up to get more attention.

Ours is fantastic, she pulls all profs together, kicks arse when people don't deliver etc etc. She is also "officialy" the school DR and helps with all statement reviews etc.
If you are not going to get anything offered in the way of support from your then you are going to need to be very clear about what you wnat from him, ask him for specifics and then he either ahs to agree or refuse, actually very difficult for a paed to refuse a request from a parent without clinical reason.

referrals.

all else is down to you-know-who.

ds last one was bit meh , this one seems slightly better but she was in shock when realised who else was involved .

I tend to co -rdinate and kick arse

Ours is fantastic and another great arse kicker.

Ours seems to say she can't do anything because my daughter's already being seen by the other departments. Who say they can't do anything until she sees the community paed. You couldn't make it up.

Ours sees us once every 6 months and writes down everything I tell her and then regurgitates it into a report, with a few typos for good measure.
In 6 years the Comm Paed has contributed absolutely nothing new except making some referreals which I asked for. I make the suggestions, i chase them up, i coordinate everyone, and i still have to go and see this tosser anyway because whenever we apply for anything or do anything new they always want to see this tosspot report from a Comm Paed. It is a total joke.
(And btw my dd doesn't have particularly complex needs, and we have seen 4 different Comm Paeds over the years who were all totally pointless)
Luckily I really enjoy these appointments and have nothing at all better to do with my time