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Help composing letter to gp practice

mouse2

Hi, quick note about myself and my son. My son is diagnosed, I'm not but think I'm more than likely on the spectrum.

We both get anxious at appointments, theres one gp that's brilliant with my son. She seems to understand autism and puts him at ease.

The other gps are a nightmare. For example today he had a late appointment as that's all they had. Hes had a busy weekend camping with scouts so has been overloaded. 1 meltdown, anxious, this evening hes quiet, less responsive but really needed to see the gp. We go to see the gp and my sons playing his game on his phone as it makes him less anxious (not always on it and sometimes talks) but today as I said hes not talking. The gp commented on him on his game then adds hes old enough to take his shoes off alone without his mums help. (He struggles getting dressed when hes this overwhelmed sometimes). The gp made a few more unhelpful comments before we left. Hes a teenager now so I dont want to say hes autistic everytime i see a gp as it's not nice for him. 

So I've decided to write to the practice manager, I want the gps to be aware of my sons difficulties and stop making comments. I'm generally too direct and I dont want to upset anyone just make them aware that they need to accept the way he is.

He behaved but didnt speak and looked at his game the whole time as it's how he copes. Sometimes he puts headphones on but no music in them but as hes older we bought beats so he wasent picked on anymore (he had ear defenders before) he also struggles looking at the doctors

Can anyone help with the letters composition please?

  • Something which may be worth asking for, which I was able to arrange at my previous GP surgery, is provision to see a nominated GP (preferably the one your son likes, of course). I think that technically, every patient does have one (it's been a while since I've been), but most surgeries seem to use it only for administration rather than allocating appointments. It was a locum doctor who took pity on me when I complained about my previous visit who arranged this with the practice manager for me - but the case can be made, as he did, that it's a "reasonable adjustment" for the purposes of disability equality.

    Naturally, if allowed it may mean a slightly longer wait or less convenient appointment times, but I found that seeing the same doctor every time visited made everything much easier - even if all of the doctors were as brilliant as the one you saw previously, it's still a much better arrangement when there's a life-long and complex condition like autism to take into account (how can you even begin to explain it in 10 minutes?!)

  • Hi. It sounds like you've explained the situation really well here. What element of the letter composition would you like support with - the content, the structure of the letter, or something else?

    It might be worth asking your GP surgery to review these resources too: https://www.autism.org.uk/get-involved/media-centre/news/2016-07-25-gp-autism-packs.aspx