Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi All,
I am new here. Mum to an 11yr old girl who is on the ND Pathway for ADHD and a 12yr old boy.
I have often felt my son shows signs of autism as he has quite a few stimming activities that does, can totally misunderstand how he processes information and repeats sentences several times.
He loves routine and certain clothing that I have to try to replace in a bigger size as he wears certain items until they wear out.
He has always struggled with social interaction and making friends.
I asked school as I feel he could benefit from some help to navigate through high school and later life.
They explained it is the GP that does the referral.
I spoke to my GP practice and they flatly refused to see him.
The school SENCO called them to spend 35 minutes on the phone to a woman who told her their policy is not to see anyone under 16 and she refused to allow her to speak to anyone else.
She said they are the only GP practice she ever heard of that refuse to see a child or young person.
I have put in an official complaint to the practice and will take this to their commissioning group and the health ombudsman.
I'm stunned they have this policy as this leaves us at a standstill with no option but to change GP.
I cannot believe a GP practice could act like this.
Has anyone ever heard of this before?
Linzi ️
Hi, this is totally unacceptable, autism doesn’t recognise age boundaries. He would benefit from accommodations at school and later in the workplace. Unfortunately GP,s are the gatekeepers. It is a total postcode lottery. What reason do they give for refusing your request? Is a county ban or just that surgery ? The threat of taking your case higher will hopefully change their minds. I would personally change surgery, another doctor will most probably act totally differently. So if they refer adults, when do they think the adults became autistic? Obviously it’s from birth. Some counties won’t refer adults but that’s more down to budget constraints. One option is to have a private assessment, this doesn’t need a referral but can be costly.
The SCHOOL should initiate the referral, not pass the buck to the GP. Every school in theory has access to the local School Health Service and Education Psychology Service. However ... NHS commissioners do not prioritise school health and there are usually not enough school nurses. Most of the school nurses are tied up with child protection and pupils with complex needs, so many mainstream schools rarely see a nurse outside meetings. Back in the day nurses used to do health checks and actually see kids ...
It's the same with the EPs. They spend most of their time "consulting" and attending meetings, or writing EHCPs during their rare visits ... the school where I was a governor saw their EP for one half-day per month, and it could take six months from a referral to a child actually being seen.
What it needs is for teachers, governors, and parents to get together and put pressure on their local councillors to kick up a fuss with NHS commissioners, and to press the Government to properly fund SEND.