Autistic Children In Hull Face Delays In Being Diagnosed
Children in Hull with autism are having to wait up to two years on average before being formally diagnosed.
Concerns have been raised about the length of time it takes for children in Hull to be diagnosed with autism.
Young people showing signs of the condition are currently waiting over a year for a diagnosis - despite being told the wait should only be 20 weeks.
Jacqueline Hoe from Hull has two children who both suffer with autism but she's still waiting for her daughter to be formally diagnosed.
She told Viking FM:
"My son was diagnosed at 21 months and he's 12 now but my daughter is undiagnosed and we've been waiting over six and a half years for that. There's a shortfall in paediatric consultants, there's a shortfall in trained service providers in Hull.
"The earlier you can diagnose autism, the better it is for the child in regard to schooling and the support that parents can put in place and that was in place when my son was diagnosed. I would say over the past ten years it has really gone down hill. They altered the diagnostic process a couple of years ago so the resources that are there just aren't enought to deal with the case load that they're getting.
"It can be so frustrating waiting for a diagnosis because as a parent you've got this child and you know that there are issues and that there are problems but because nobody is telling you what they are specifically then you don't know what to put in place. Families really struggle, especially with the frustration and the anger problems."
The issue was raised in Parliament last night by Hull North MP Diana Johnson. She held a debate questioning why the city has very long delays in diagnosing children with autism and asked what is being done to improve the situation.
She told Viking FM:
"I've had a number of families come to see me saying it's taking so long, they're getting very frustrated and they're being told at the outset that they will be seen and their children will be diagnosed within 20 weeks but actually it's taking more like 15- 16 months.
"The waits in Hull are particuarly long and I've been asking the Clinical Commissioning Group in Hull what measures they are putting in place to deal with this problem.
"We know that if you put services in and help children when they are very little, it's much better to do that than to wait until they are older as the services then have to be much more intense."