"A terrible experience"

A terrible experience

My experience with clinical partners has been nothing short of appalling. The service is clearly not fit for purpose to support the people that they work with.

I was referred for an autism assessment via RTC. On the morning of this assessment I woke up to a text message from the clinician scheduled to undertake this. The message came from an unknown mobile number. The clinician asked to rearrange the assessment with no explanation until I directly asked and they said it was due to technical issues. In the end this assessment went ahead over the phone around 30 minutes later than scheduled. This in itself was a poor experience, it would have been better for myself to be contacted through an official clinical partners number where I could speak to a representative and discuss my options.

I was then scheduled to receive my outcome and feedback on 3rd June at 12:30pm. I was called at 12:45pm and asked if I was ok to go ahead. I confirmed that whilst not ideal I was able to proceed. The clinician then mumbled for a bit, announced 'I guess I'll just get straight to the point' and then continued to mumble 'just a minute' until finally stating that she couldn't open the document and asked if she could call back. I agreed to this and received a call back around 5 minutes later where she requested to call me at 12:30pm the following day instead. I never received a call to share my feedback the following day and as of writing this feedback on 21st June am still yet to do so.

This lack of outcome is despite me calling clinical partners multiple times over the past 3 weeks asking for an update, emailing their complaints department and asking to speak to a supervisor who can give me clarity on how long I should expect to wait for an outcome which I was promised on Tuesday and am yet to receive today (Friday). This hold up is meaning that I am stalled in applying for any support I may be eligible to receive if I am diagnosed or following other pathways should this process not provide me with a clear answer. I received what can only be described as a holding email today stating that they are 'sorry' for not responding sooner and that they will be in touch to book my feedback appointment when they have managed to contact the clinician with no timescale whatsoever offered for this.

This experience has left me with absolutely no confidence in this organisation and feeling completely abandoned by a company that is supposed to be offering support and has been anything but supportive.

I note that in response to many of the less favourable reviews here clinical partners suggest that the reviewers contact their complaints email address. I have already done this and it has had no benefit to me at all. I remain, over 8 weeks after my assessment was completed, completely uninformed about the outcome and when I may get this. I most definitely would not recommend clinical partners to anyone.