"My child's hip dysplasia"

My child was diagnosed with suspected hip dysplasia and we were seeing a physiotherapist privately to assist with their gross motor skill development. At our Child Health Nurse appointment, it was suggested that a referral for physiotherapy was written so we could also access the public system, and we could potentially swap over given private physio was at a cost of $200 per session. The CHN wrote the referral and we were placed in the system.

We received the first letter from Armadale CDS asking us to phone to make an appointment. The earliest booking available wasn't for another 8 weeks - which seemed like an extremely long wait given the circumstances. It seemed the receptionist also booked our appointment incorrectly as a telehealth appointment.

When our appointment date eventually came, the physiotherapist remarked that we should have been in the clinic so a proper assessment of my child's gross motor skills could be made. Seems obvious, in my opinion. In any case, we proceeded with the telehealth appointment and discussed some additional strategies and exercises to implement. A follow up email was sent stating that the Armadale CDS would contact us to make another (in clinic) appointment in 6 weeks. When I queried why the wait time was so long, I was told they 'weren't the type of service' that offered regular and frequent follow up.

Shortly after receiving this letter I received a phone call from a physiotherapist based at the Lissiman Street clinic asking if we wanted to book our follow up - to which I replied yes, we would. It was clear to me the whole agenda of the phone call was to clear their case load as I seemed the staff member then spent the next 15 minutes stating we didn't really need their services since we were accessing physio privately. I communicated that I was dissatisfied with the 'service' we had received, given we haven't even been able to attend clinic for a proper assessment - so how has it been determined that we can be discharged?

We then received a discharge letter a few days later.

If the public system was the only means available to us, I feel my child would have slipped through the cracks to their own detriment. We have continued paying $200 per session to access physiotherapy for my child privately - however, we intended to utilise both services in parallel but were not given the opportunity due to what appears to be a disorganised administration and in my opinion, frankly lazy clinicians.