"Pediatrics Audiology Referral Ignored and Dismissed"

My child was referred by their GP at 3yo in May last year to have a hearing test done at Kalgoorlie Outpatients Audiology Clinic. This was completed with no concerns reported by the audiologist. My child is now 4yo and in the year since their audiology test my child has still continued to experience issues with their ears and hearing. I revisited our GP a few months ago because as mentioned, my child still showed issues with their hearing and tells me multiple times a day that they can't hear me despite being right next to them and my child asks me to repeat myself multiple times. Considering my concerns, my GP referred us once again to the audiologist.

Fast forward to recently, I realise that we are still waiting to hear about an appointment for my child, so I go back to our GP who resends the referral and encourages me to follow up. My first attempts to contact the specialist I was unable to get hold of anyone after a couple of phone calls, so left a voicemail in the end which was returned a few days later. I missed the call, phoned back and got the Pediatrics team who said I needed to speak to outpatients. I was transferred to a quite rude staff member in outpatients who I felt barely let me speak and informed me I needed pediatrics. I let them know I'd just come from there and I felt they rudely told me well they couldn't help. I ended up hanging up whilst on hold, as I was tending to my children and couldn't wait.

I phoned population health to see if I could get assistance with an appointment via them and they were great and put me through to Allied Health who assisted in booking my child in to be seen in a couple of days time.

Within about half an hour, I received an email being sent to my child’s GP, that I'd been CC'd into by the Audiologist. This email was the audiologist sending the report from the previous appointment (last year!) and said apologies it was late and they'd closed the referral off.

I then received a phone call from the audiologist regarding my child's referral. They advised that they'd closed the referral. I explained that I'd actually revisited my GP because we as parents still had concerns and that my child is telling us that they cannot hear us, and were then provided a new referral a few months ago. The audiologist went on to tell me there was no point us bringing my child into be seen because the ‘results are the same’. I expressed my concerns and said 'how can the results be the same, when you haven't even tested my child for a second time'. Whilst I understand it is of course a possibility that the results are going to be the same, is it acceptable to just ignore a referral in this manner? I also explained that my child had been by a CHN where a hearing test was done, but would need to be redone as there were some discrepancies - which is another reason I went back to the GP when I noticed my child’s hearing issues seemed to be worsening. When I informed them of this, I recall they advised that Child Health Nurse's are not trained as well as them, and they (Audiologist) are better trained, therefore they know my child doesn't need to be seen again. I vented my frustration to the audiologist and tried to get my point across. In the end I told them to cancel our upcoming appointment because clearly they don’t want to take my child's referral on (despite being apart of the Public Health System, I didn't realise they could pick and choose their patients as they sees fit). I informed them that I will take my child to Perth if that means getting better health care than what they are seemingly willing to give. I'd rather pay for my child to be seen by someone who actually is going to listen and acknowledge a GP referral.

I am absolutely disgusted in how this person treated us. How can they seemingly deny to see someone (especially a 4yo child who only has their parents to speak for them!) when we've got a referral from our GP.

Whether the results were going to be the same or not - this wasn't something I believe they would know 100% without doing the second test. Who's to say my child’s hearing hasn't deteriorated in the last year and that's why they can't hear or does my child need to be referred to an ENT because they have ongoing ear problems? I'm not saying this is the case, but the whole idea of being referred was part of the investigation process to look into my child's issue.

I feel there was absolutely zero care given to my 4yo's referral and the issues they are experiencing. And the fact the audiologist didn't even send the initial report to our GP last year when we had our original referral, I believe just goes to show they really does not care.

I hung up the phone feeling so angry at them for how they treated us. I firmly believe the audiologist never made an appointment with us between a few months ago and now (when I contacted them to follow up) because they took it upon them to close the referral themselves, as  they felt it wasn't needed. I base this assumption off a few things that the person from Allied health said while I was making the appointment (things like "closed referral" etc).

Hopefully this complaint reaches the right place and helps better the healthcare given in the Goldfields. Not overly hopeful though - I think the audiologist needs a better attitude and probably should see patients that have been referred rather than just dismissing them because they feels results will be the same.