Hi all,
I requested an autism diagnosis through NHS during lockdown. It took five years to finally get an assessment, this winter. Last summer, I also recieved an ADHD diagnosis privately.
I went ahead with the autism assessment, eventhough I now felt adhd explains my situation better. But after reviewing the draft report, I picked up 4 pages worth of bullet points of factual errors in the report. This included a lot of fabricated responses or false information for example: ____ was separated from his step mother and step siblings (i don't have a step mother and step siblings and no idea why they put this). Another example: he cried at the first day of nursery ( I did not say this).
I was already concerned about having an autism diagnosis in my NHS record due to several reasons, including being uncomfortable with the amount of confidential detail the report holds. However, the amout of errors has increased my anxiety and has made me doubt the validity of the diagnosis further. Up to 10 errors, I would understand, but this was around 40 errors approx.
I sent the list of errors to the team, who amended the report, but said that the diagnosis remains the same. However, I am still concerned about the validity. Alongside that, there were supposed to be 3 assessment meetings. It was casually mentioned during the 2nd meeting, that the assessor from the first assessment didn't take any notes at all. So they basically had to ask me the same questions all over again making the appointment over 2 hours long, with information about childhood emotional abuse missing. Also, during the second meeting, the assessor mentioned that my records shared with them show an incidence of suicide attempt, which I was taken aback by as that is false as well. I contacted my GP receptionist after the appointment and checked my online record which shows no such information. That has made me confused further.
With the above in mind:
- is there any way or me to request that the diagnosis is to not be shared with the NHS?
- is there an advocacy advice team I can access to require help with this issue?
- Can I request that they add in the report that there were 40 errors and I therefore disagree with the diagnosis validity?
- If I get a second opinion diagnosis privately, will that replace this report and diagnosis?
- who has access to the full report? Can any GP I go to read it all if they like?
Thanks
