HWL Escalation Paper - CCG Governing Board Oct 19
Healthwatch Lincolnshire has become increasingly concerned about the lack of access, both in and out of Lincolnshire, to adult Neurology, Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Tourette’s Syndrome, Dyslexia, Dyspraxia and other neurodevelopmental disorders of childhood services, our concern has been recognised by the number of comments raised with us by patients and their carers.
In addition, we have more recently been aware of the delays in cervical screening test results for Lincolnshire women.
To add to our main concern, we believe if no pressure is put on our health and care services to address the growing list of services that our patients are experiencing, both in and out of county, this list will escalate further to the detriment of our resident’s health.
Examples of patient and carer feedback:
Autism - “Our GP has tried everywhere to refer the child but to no avail. Even tried out of county but they will not take ‘out of county’. How does a child get the diagnosis as it will help with the EHC plan and they cannot go forward with the EHC plan until the diagnosis has been given?”
Adult neurology - “My partner has recently had a heart attack, is being treated for cancer and just received notification that they need to be urgently referred to neurologist as they most likely have a degenerative neurological condition. Only problem is we have been told by our doctor that we are not able to get an appointment anywhere to see a consultant neurologist, we are so concerned about any delays and I am concerned the stress of waiting caused their heart attack”
Cervical screening - “I was told this morning the wait it now 20 weeks!!!”; “Already waited 13 weeks” “Our surgery have been as helpful as they can (but still no results)”
