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Has anyone else faced the issue of being restricted from accessing their child's medical records ?
My 13 year old disabled son sees me every 2 weeks and stays overnight every 4 weeks. I have full PR. His mother left me very early in our son's life and has been hostile and totally obstructive in every possible way ever since he was born.
She has just told me that I can no longer receive copies of any of his specialists reports (he is cared for by a multi-discplinary team and she was forwarding these to me) because "son does not wish me to send on correspondence and as he is now of an age to make this decision I have to respect his wishes"
In support of this comment she quoted the GMC and sent this reference:
I am almost certain my son is being manipulated by his mother because it serves her own agenda to exclude and alienate me as much as she possibly can but I am wondering whether her reference is definitive and at all contestable and if it makes any sense for me to obtain legal advice or whether the better way is to simply discuss it with my son (who is totally cogent mentally - all of his disabilities are physical)
I would absolutely prefer to keep him out of the discussion because he does not need to be involved but if in fact the bottom line is that if "at the grand old age of 13" he is allowed to make a call like this and it is totally incontestable then I don't think I have any other options ?
Appreciate all thoughts and references ?
Thanks
This info from the BMA explains it well
However as you have sole care of your child for overnight stays, there may be good reason why you should be party to any medical issues he may have, if something were to happen whilst he was in your care and you weren’t conversant with any treatments or knowledge of symptoms etc, it would be difficult to care for him appropriately.
If you have the name of his consultant or other member of the team supporting him I can’t see that there would be anything wrong with calling them to discuss your concerns.
Best of luck
I had, and still have a situation where my ex will not involve me in anything to do with my daughters wellbeing. She is only accepting that I have her to stay with me, but then that suits her too.
She needs to take medication, which I am not happy about, or rather think is excessive for her. My ex would not tell me when appointments with the specialist were, the outcomes, or discuss any of her thoughts on what is best for our daughter. She was totally shutting me out.
She also had the specialist involved, who would not respond to any of my requests, only to say that you need to discuss it with your childs mother - the very person who wont discuss anything with me!
The third time this happened(over an 18 month period)I emailed in to say that I would be taking this through the hospital PALS complaints procedure for the way the specialist has handled the situation. There was silence for a day, I assume while they read all of my perfectly reasonable requests for information only and I was then informed the specialist had been removed from my daughters care and been replaced with another. The new Doctor is now including me in conversations and her care.
So my suggestion is, make a complaint through the appropriate official channels, if you feel you are not being treated as you should expect and are entitled to.
How old is your daughter HRabbit? This posters teenage child is instigating the block on information being passed to him, which can happen. A child over the age of 12 can be assessed as “gillick competent” by the medical team and make their own decisions about treatment and information sharing.
My daughter is 14 currently. I was under the impression that as a father with parental rights I was entitled to view the medical records of my daughter.
At the same time as trying to get this resolved with a complaint to the hospital the specialist worked at, I also went to my local Doctors surgery. The practice manager told me I was certainly entitled to get access to the medical records they held for my daughter.
I therefore assumed the removal of the specialist from my daughters care was recognition of that also. In case of misunderstanding, my reqest has only ever been to be involved in the discussion and have my views listened to, acknowledged and responded. All of my emails have been polite and reflecting just that desire.
The issue has been a deliberate policy of my ex wife to exclude me from any conversations or involvement with any element of my daughters wellbeing, not just the medical issue - school as well. She is not a good person!
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