Pediatician appointment letter not arrived

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My son (17, year 13) went to the go for a referral to be tested for autism, (specifically pda he thinks), the gp agreed that the symptoms could be caused by hfa/pda, and said that she would refer him to a pediatician to be tested.

Fast forward about a month and he still hasn't received a letter with an appointment date, I assumed that there would probably be a long wait for an appointment, it was the same deal with camhs a few ago, but I thought that we would have gotten a date by now.

Is this normal to have no further communication after referral for a month?
How can I check on the status of the referral? I would book another go appointment but that could take 2 weeks and would waste the gp's time to book an appointment just to ask for a status update.

Can you phone the centre where the Paediatrician is based to check whether they received the referral? I’ve chased up many appointments this way.

We did only wait about a month for the letter although the appointment was 5 months later. Saying that when we saw the paediatrician in December she referred him for a speech and language assessment. I have heard absolutely nothing from them and that was 3 months ago!

Would he definitely still be dealt with by paediatrics? In our area young people over 16 are dealt with by the adult autism pathway.

I would still try and chase up with the Paed secretary. If the Paeds saw your DS in December, they would have said if they were planning to discharge him. Chase the S&L assessment as well. I have two DS who were diagnosed with ASD as teens and I had to keep chasing. It will be much, much harder once he is under adult services.

Definitely chase up if you've not received an appointment letter within a month of initial referral to anyone.

If your ds or dd is over 16, it's possible they will have to either give written permission for you to be able to deal with this for them, or they need to fill in a specific form at the GP surgery to let the receptionists know, otherwise you get caught up in all the confidential information regulations.

If you know the consultant you've been referred to, ring up and ask for their Secretary, they are usually on the ball.

If you don't know the name of the person you've been referred to, ring your GP surgery and ask the receptionists if they can find out and give you a call back.