aka R’acquel

We took our son to see Dr.Ashu Aggarwal, Consultant Paediatrician practising at 71 Parke St in Katoomba this week.

We had a special education screening & assesment person review our son both at home and in the school environment. We were advised to see a paediatrician for the sake of ruling out Autism Spectrum Disorder. In essence, it was to get the ball rolling so that the school can make an application for funding to acquire and extra teaching aid to help out with my son’s transition into kinderarten next year - they can’t do that without an offical report. 

I was not impressed with this doctor’s manner. He was very abrupt and i found it difficult to talk to him. He did not acknowledge my son, no friendly greetings upon meeting. When it came to physical examinations, he was commanding my son to assume the positions. His voice was very cold & regimental.

My son’s height, weight & head circumference was measured. His chest was listened to with a stethescope. There were some proddings to his tummy made. Then his legs & arms were bent back & forth. A very brief moment of asking my son to look up.

I’m used to my neurologist making a more thorough physical exam of me. I don’t know if he didn’t follow a routine up like this because my son was a young child.

The process itself was really hasty. It felt like we were being processed like sausages in a meat factory. Maybe he’s so experienced that he can afford to process people so quickly like this?! Whatever the case, the experience was not a pleasant one for me.

What perturbed me was how he first began with,

“So what seems to be of concern to you about Aidan?”

The special ed lady had spent over 2 hours observing my son with a lot of detailed notes. She was supposed to relay this information to him, and it was as though he had no knowledge of it. When i brought this issue up to him, his response was,

“Oh, i think i got some information from someone about this.”

Proceeds to find a tiny little post-it note and begins to read it all. It was as though it was the first time that he actually read it at any great depth.

His line of questioning was really awkward because he was going so fast. Perhaps he’s really efficient with his work but i do not believe that he was able to gain a very good picture of the situation at all.

Asides from being told that our son is very big for his age, all we were given was,

“There are signs of Autism present”. Told to check up on his eyes & hearing and follow up with a referral to a psychologist.

The special ed lady has placed us on the waiting list so that Aidan can be reviewed by a child development team - from what i gather, is a multi-disciplinary group of people consisting of a social woker, psychologist, speech pathologist and occupational therapist. As we were given just the sole contact for a psychologist on it’s own, it felt like we were cast out into sea like a fishing line without any kind of bait on the hook either.

I had the expectation that this paediatrician was supposed to write up a report, which is to be sent to the school so that they can make a formal application for extra funding.

Got a call from the school today to check in with our progress. I told them about my difficulty with this doctor, being really unimpressed by his manner. They were glad to hear me express this because the school counsellor had said,

“They could’ve gone to a better doctor then that one!”

Therefore, they were hesitant to bring it up but relieved to hear that i was able to relay an honest response.

I was told that this doctor rarely makes a diagnosis and usually refers people to a child development team. This was the primary reason for why i was so upset by my encounter with him because it felt like a rip-off. I pay $190 upfront, with $113 rebate just for a private paediatrician to give me a referral?

Couldn’t i have gotten a referral like this by going to my GP who bulk-bills? The special ed lady has already placed us on the queue for review by a child development team. 

The school told me that they tried to follow up with this paediatrician. His secretary said that he is working on a report, that she’s transcribing via dictaphone. My next step is to check in with them about this report. No one’s answering the phone so i’m gonna stop in f2f at the surgery if we go shopping today. 

What upsets me is that the special ed lady gave me two recommendations. I had two choices. This doctor, and Dr.Kolos. I was warned that Dr.Kolos was known to be very difficult to talk to. This is why i chose to go for the second one - coz i didn’t want to be stuck with a doctor that was difficult to talk to about something so important to us!

The experience was deeply upsetting for me. I had cried for two days and was only able to pick myself up and march forward by the 3rd day. Perfectly normal for my body to get it out of my system. I have just cause to be allergic to bad Australian doctors.

For now, i’m glad that my feelings have been validated by others even though i don’t require that. Perhaps this paediatrician is really good with his work in other specialisations, perhaps he is able to have great rapport with other parents. I know what constitutes as a great doctor for me. If you’re looking for a paediatrician who is friendly & approachable, someone who doesn’t make you feel bad when you need to take your time to ask questions - the boot doesn’t fit with this doctor for us.

Here’s hoping that we can at least gain a formal report without too much further distress. Looking forward to getting my son’s sight & hearing crossed off the list in the meanwhile.

If anyone in the area has encountered a great paediatrician that they’ve found easy to talk to, I’d really love to hear recommendations or the experiences of others.