"Hindered both diagnosis and referral"

We have been with this practice for more than 12 years and our experience since having our baby has been very disappointing. He is 10 months now with allergies from the start and has only just had his first appointment with the allergy specialist. The practice consistently made it difficult to understand why he was unwell saying « it will pass » instead of figuring out the issue when there was clearly something wrong. They finally made the referral at 5 months.

At that time we were told the waitlist was 5-6 months. Given that our baby was struggling every day with symptoms we decided to help ourselves understand what he needed by doing the initial testing privately then came back to the GP with the results. We were advised that given the results his referral should be expedited.

The practice waited until we checked on progress many times to take action and then told us they had when instead what they did was to send a new referral sending us back to the start of the waitlist, and completely hindering any progress we had made with the initial referral.

The allergist team informed us that the practice had not sent an expedite request and instead sent a new request when I checked on our wait times. Having clarified things we have finally had a first consultation, however in the end our GP practice’s « help » did more to hinder our diagnosis and help than anything which is extremely disappointing and feels callous when it comes to a little baby’s care.