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Disappointing experience

Posted By Gilmore

"Disappointing experience"

About: Eastbourne District General Hospital / Paediatrics

(as a service user),

Our health visitor failed to refer us to the scott unit until we reminded them a month or so later. Then once our son was on the waiting list they told us he would be treated as a priority. Imagine our surprise as literally nothing happened after that for maybe 6 months. Not one call, welfare check, advice, nothing. I left a message complaining several months in and we passed control over to our childminder who did a great job of trying to get them to do their job but it just wasn't quite enough.

Later down the line we had a video consultant appointment, and they told us our boy is probably autistic but nothing can be done without a proper test. Then after a while we had to move, at which point they promptly called the local council and said he's not their responsibility anymore. I would say that in our experience the Scott Unit is not fit for purpose. Our son found life harder and harder in the months they were charged with his care, it felt like they did literally nothing.

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Responses

Response from Eastbourne District General Hospital 3 years ago
Eastbourne District General Hospital

Submitted on 02/10/2020 at 11:31
Published on nhs.uk at 12:48

Thank you for taking the time to leave us some feedback about your experience of care from the Health Visiting Team and the Scott Unit at Eastbourne Hospital; we appreciate your comments.

As a responsible healthcare provider, the Trust works very hard to provide a high standard of care for all patients across the age range, and so we are both concerned and disappointed to read this was not the standard you received. Please accept our apologies for the frustration and upset this has caused not only you, but your son too. Unfortunately, our Child Development Clinics have, and continue to receive, high volumes of referrals and whilst the team endeavour to see children as quickly as possible, demand for the service far exceeds capacity particularly given some assessments we undertake are very lengthy and take time to fully complete. It is also disappointing to read that you did not feel you were kept sufficiently updated in terms of wait times, and there was a lack of contact from services while you were waiting for an appointment; these are points we will share with the team on the Scott Unit so that they can consider any improvements required.

It is not clear from your feedback if you still reside in our catchment area but if you do and require assistance with your son’s referral to the Scott Unit, please contact our Patient Advice and Liaison Service (PALS) at esh-tr.palse@nhs.net or you can call the team on 0300 131 4784. Please also feel free to contact PALS if you would like to provide us with some specific details of your case so that we can see how we may have been able to improve your experience of accessing the Scott Unit.

We are sorry that you have not had access to and or received the intervention you were hoping to get for your son from our Trust, and apologise for this. We also hope that if you have moved out of our area, a new referral has been made for your son to be seen by local services for an autism assessment and that as a family, you are collectively receiving the support you need. We wish you all the very best for good health and wellbeing for the future, and that your son will grow and thrive!

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