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Assessment delays

pintsizepirate

Hi everyone

Looking for some advice here. I contacted the company my GP referred me to for an autism assessment this week to get an update. Assessment at the latest was due on January 21st. They simply replied, all assessments will now be at least a year's wait. 
They accepted the referral on the 21st of July, stating a 4-6 month wait. It took 7 months to get the GP to complete the referral. In my head, I've already waited a year. I've written to all involved: GP, Council ICB, South London & Maudsley for a referral to their National Adult ADHD and Autism Psychology Service, my council's screening service but nobody is responding. What do I do? What are my options? This was through Right to Choose. If I hadn't contacted anyone, I would still be in the dark next year. 
My life has been on hold waiting for this. My mental and physical health is being affected as has my marriage which has now broken down because of my traits. I already have an ADHD diagnosis. I'm at my wits end! Surely, they can't abandon patients like this? Don't they have a duty of care? 
Hoping somebody here may have some guidance or advice as to what my options are as the powers that be are proving to be useless. 
Many thanks in advance 
joanne
Parents
  • pintsizepirate said:
    What do I do? What are my options?

    I don't think there is anything you can do to change the delayed date as the services are heavily oversubscribed and it won't take much for them to have delays (eg losing one of the assessors).

    pintsizepirate said:
    Surely, they can't abandon patients like this? Don't they have a duty of care? 

    I don't think this goes to the point of abandoning you - they have notified you of a delay and they will be trying to get the staff to cover it so you probably have to wait until they have the people to do it.

    If you are desperate for it then a private assessment is the only way to bypass this situation. It will cost in the region of £2k I think but should only take a few months. I would check with your GP that they would accept the diagnosis from the company you intend to use first as I have heard of then refusing to add private assessments to your NHS medical record.

    The NHS has a heavy backlog for diagnoses even through the Right To Choose route and I expect this sort of issue will be not uncommon.

    pintsizepirate said:
    My life has been on hold waiting for this

    Is if that you need to know that you are autistic or that you need the diagnosis to access some other service?

Reply
  • pintsizepirate said:
    What do I do? What are my options?

    I don't think there is anything you can do to change the delayed date as the services are heavily oversubscribed and it won't take much for them to have delays (eg losing one of the assessors).

    pintsizepirate said:
    Surely, they can't abandon patients like this? Don't they have a duty of care? 

    I don't think this goes to the point of abandoning you - they have notified you of a delay and they will be trying to get the staff to cover it so you probably have to wait until they have the people to do it.

    If you are desperate for it then a private assessment is the only way to bypass this situation. It will cost in the region of £2k I think but should only take a few months. I would check with your GP that they would accept the diagnosis from the company you intend to use first as I have heard of then refusing to add private assessments to your NHS medical record.

    The NHS has a heavy backlog for diagnoses even through the Right To Choose route and I expect this sort of issue will be not uncommon.

    pintsizepirate said:
    My life has been on hold waiting for this

    Is if that you need to know that you are autistic or that you need the diagnosis to access some other service?

Children
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