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Table 6 Key Themes- Communication

From: A qualitative study of health care providers’ perceptions and experiences of working together to care for children with medical complexity (CMC)

Communication

Primary Health Care left out of communication

Sutherland forum

I’m made to look foolish, scrambling for information. (GP, urban)

7 out of 10 kids that we see don’t relate to a GP. It’s a bigger issue. And you’re right, we see a lot without GPs. I think one of the issues with complex kids is working out who does what (Paediatrician regional setting)

So, this is often what happens when the parents present with the child, might be a simple problem, but the background of complex problem, what we probably face is that child might need a simple prescription, but I don’t want to write that not knowing what is going on with the child (GP urban)

Communication from the tertiary paediatric network

ED will often say to me that they’ll transfer a child and they’ll never ever know what happens to that child whether it survived, if it’s a resus, or trauma. There’s no feedback from the tertiary facility as to how that child went and they find that quite frustrating at times. (Paediatric Nurse district hospital)

We need to know the diagnosis. That’s critical, but it’s not always clear in the communication that we get. I think timely communication is probably key. I get letters [from tertiary hospital] that are probably 3 months after they have seen the specialist. To know what actually happens in a timely way. I don’t know why there’s such a gap. By the time you get the letter, the meds have changed 3 times anyway. (GP urban)

We need to have access to the children’s medical records and pathology from the (tertiary paediatric network). Because sometimes a simple thyroid function test we can access, we can save ½ hour prior to doing all those things. The GP can see it, we can see it from other LHDs, our registrars don’t have to keep ringing everybody. (Paediatrician district hospital)