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The 'getting to know you' form

nikki001

Hi, I have a 3 year old daughter that our doctor wants to refer to a specialist for Autism. However, he says he cannot do so without a health visitor/key person filling out the 'getting to know you' form.

The process seems to have gone quite wrong for us and rather drawn out.

We began with a visit to our gp when our daughter was 2 and a half years old when she did not appear to be progressing with her speech and other behaviour. I voiced my concerns regarding Autism as my older daughter has been diagnosed with Autism. The gp was not helpful at all, she refused us referral to an Autism specialist and to a speech and language therapist.

After a couple of months I insisted that our health visitor come and assess the situation. The health visitor came in February just before our daughters 3rd birthday and only got us a referral to a speech and language therapist.

The speech and language therapist came two weeks ago, and told me to keep a diary of our daughters behaviour. I only did it for a week and had plenty of evidence of Autistic behaviour. I was very worried and took this diary to another gp. He immediately said he wanted to refer us to an Autism specialist, however he was unable to do so as our health visitor had failed to fill out the 'getting to know you' form.

I have phoned the health visitor 3 times and they appear reluctant to even make an appointment with me to fill the form in. We can have to wait up to a month to see a health visitor in the area we live in.

I find this unacceptable as after the form is filled in we will need to visit the gp again then wait over a month for an appointment for a specialist.

By the time we have seen the specialist we will have been waiting for over a year!

It's like trying to swim up stream. Is this a common experience nowadays?

Does the system need to change?

It seems like the different departments are not communicating effectively.

  • While not an immediate solution, I venture to ask if your GP surgery has a Patients Participation Group. It may be on the website if they have one, otherwise just enquire at reception.

    GP surgeries are supposed to have these though they can vary from active regular meets to just vague email notification.

    Asking has two impacts. Firstly it is a bit like a parent with a problem child asking to join the school governors, just doing it might make them think. However if you can attend a PPG meeting, you might get it raised with the surgery as an issue of principle (ie they wont address personal details, but it raises the broader issue). It could be taken up with the Commissioning Group of the NHS Trust in your area. There is an onus on them to look at particular patient experience pathways.

    The other approach is to get some advocacy, either through a local parents group if there is one locally, or near enough to intercede, or through a Community Advocacy Service if there is one.

    It sounds very disheartening. You shouldn't be in Catch 22 situations like that. The Government favours this sort of community intervention that underpins PPGs so while they are there use them.