"Over a year waiting for my ASD child to be seen by the visiting paediatrician"

My young child was referred to the visiting paediatrician at Carnarvon Hospital in mid last year after significant developmental and behavioural concerns were documented. These included meltdowns, sensory difficulties, difficulty with social cues, limited eye contact, distress with change, hand flapping, repeating themself frequently, struggling in crowds, and difficulty coping with loud noises, but also airway issue including nocturnal enuresis, snoring, mouth breathing, sleep apnea and frequent respiratory illnesses! Thankfully Dr Paul had seen the severity of this and has since had surgery in 2026.

My child had already been seen by Occupational Therapy in April last year. Since then, they have also been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder by another doctor funded privately. A further referral was sent in January this year for review and ongoing management.

Despite this, we still have not been given an appointment with the visiting paediatrician.

As their parent, I am angry, exhausted, stressed and extremely upset. I am struggling every day to support my child while waiting for a service that they were referred to over a year ago. I feel like I keep having to prove how much help my child needs, but it seems nothing actually happens.

This is not just an inconvenience for us. This delay affects my child’s development, their wellbeing, our family, and my ability to get the right supports in place for my child. In my experience, it is incredibly hard living in a regional area where services are already limited, and it feels like children like mine are left waiting while families are expected to just cope.

I want to know why my child has not been seen, where they are on the waiting list, when they will actually get an appointment. I also want clear communication about who is responsible for following this up, because waiting this long with no appointment is unacceptable in my opinion.

I am sharing this because my child deserves timely care, and I believe I should not have to fight this hard just to access a paediatric review.

My child has rights just as much as anyone else.