"My daughter's referral"

My GP submitted a referral for my autistic daughter to see a consultant regarding sleep issues in January 2023.  We knew there would be a waiting list for this service, however in March 2023 I called the GP to ensure we had actually been put on a waiting list as we had no communication to tell us this and my daughter's sleep issues were becoming much worse.  We were assured by the GP surgery that a referral had been made.  

In May 2023 I phoned the neurodevelopment service to ask about waiting times and to explain that my daughter's sleep had deteriorated since the referral was made and that she was now unable to attend school and that we had great difficulty getting her to even leave the house due to anxiety and reduced sleep.  The neurodevelopmental team told me that they don't deal with sleep and the referral should have been made to community paediatrics instead. They had a record of the referral, however this incorrect request had not been returned to the GP to inform them of this or forwarded onto community paediatrics, instead my daughter's referral had fallen into a black hole.  

If I had not of been proactive in trying to find out what had happened to this referral we would never have found this out and my daughter still wouldn't be on the waiting list.  As a family we are working closely with the school and other agencies to try to get my daughter back into school, however while my daughter is surviving on 3 hours' sleep a night all this effort is not going to help.

I am extremely angry and frustrated that this has happened. I feel that our autistic children are already being failed by NHS Lanarkshire due to the long waiting times for assessments without avoidable administration errors increasing this waiting time!