"Dealing with drs"

Where do I start?

Our first appointment with a paediatrician was Jan 2024. This seemed like the initial appointment where we told our story from the conception to now with all the details nothing really came out of it, and we met our first dr.

Our second appointment we had another dr and this was July 2024. this appointment I felt like my child's’ behaviours issues was pointed towards my parenting and their anger issues and recommended a book to buy and read with him. Third app and this dr was Oct 2024. I finally felt we had met a good dr who saw my child's issues and said they wanted to meet us again and continue watching my child and made me feel like ASD is the route we would be going down. We were emailed questionnaires for both me and my child's teacher to complete and a whole bunch of blood tests were instructed.

I then made another appointment specially for this third dr of which was prepared to wait so as they had said they could continue to observe my child.

Oct 2024, I go into the appointment only to be seeing a different dr. this was now my 4th and every time we get a new dr we have to go through our story from conception to now. This dr tells me the initial paper questions had been lost but the computer ones both me and their teacher had completed had led to 3 diagnosis ADHD, Generalised anxiety and oppositional defiance disorder. After chatting for 30 mins, the dr says my child doesn’t have ADHD and then tells me we need to see a psychologist and they would email me paperwork. After a couple of weeks, I receive nothing so I go to CAMS and basically organise it myself. They could see I was upset and didn’t really know what to do or how to go about getting the help I felt we needed. So, we speak to the psychologist (Dec 2024) and when we get the report they say my child also does not have generalised anxiety or oppositional defiance disorder and leans towards auditory processing disorder. They tell me they have discussed this all with the 4th dr and I need to see them and they can do referrals to speech and ot.

I call up and make an appointment for dr no 4 of which I am ok to wait as psych spoke to them and I’m trying to get continuity of care.

We go for our 5th app finally in Feb and walk in and it’s not dr no 4 its now our 5th dr! They apologise about the lack of continuity of care and says they will write out the referrals and send me a new questionnaire to me and my child’s teacher for ASD.

2 weeks past and I follow it up nothing has been done and I’m informed dr no 5 is away for a month so they organise a telephone call with dr no 4 to get everything done.

Please note I’m told by these drs that the wait for speech and ot is a month, so I ask them to bump me up the list since its already been a month of no one doing the referral.

Again, I follow up that referrals have been done and nothing has been done, Speech call me and let me know there is a drop in clinic and I can self-refer. I go to the clinic and am told there is 12-18 months wait for speech and ot face to face and the questionnaire for ASD isn’t an assessment it’s the pre assessment to see if they can test and there is then a 1-2 years wait for the actual assessment.

I know its a public system but there is no continuity of care. No true explanation of the process and clearly the drs have no idea of the wait times.

I feel it's a disgrace.

Its draining on my mental health as I never realised I would have to fight so hard to get care for my child. It’s hard on my child as they have to sit through every appointment listening to me list out what’s wrong all while I’m trying to tell my child that I’m just trying to help them and telling them they are perfect in their own way.

Something needs to change. I feel it’s a waste of my time and the public health care system.