Dr David Sims, Medical Director at Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust and Consultant Child Psychiatrist, has been running the majority of his outpatient clinics for children and their families within their school setting for the past 20 years. This decision has helped to ensure that young patients with learning disabilities and autism have equitable access to services.
David still carries out specialist treatment in a clinical setting, but with the majority of his clinics running in schools, young patients are seen in an environment that is familiar to them, and they are less anxious and more relaxed. It’s also less disruptive to the child’s day to day routine and can help alleviate some of the barriers for the child’s parents in accessing healthcare services, such as problems with transport and travel costs.
Bringing in other education professionals who are involved in the child’s care: During his clinics, David will always invite other education professionals into the session (the special educational needs co-ordinator, school nurse and teacher). This means he can gain more accurate information that can be used to support the child, as well as carry out training with the education professionals.
Helping to reduce missed appointments through accessible healthcare: As a result of David’s approach in bringing the clinics into schools, the children are more likely to attend their appointments and he can work flexibly to meet the needs of the families, often carrying out virtual appointments with parents and carers where required. The number of missed appointments for David’s clinics currently has a rate of less than 3%, which is much lower compared to a national average of between 10 – 15% for children with mental health problems. This means David’s approach is supporting children and their parents to be able to access their healthcare appointments.
Bringing different professionals together to carry out medical procedures : David has also been working with different healthcare professionals to ensure care is provided in one single visit to the hospital, avoiding multiple clinical appointments for children with autism.
He recently worked to bring together a dentist, paediatrician and ENT specialist to carry out their individual assessments for a child, all whilst the child was under anaesthetic. This meant the young patient was able to have checks carried out on the same day in one location, reducing the need to travel to various appointments on different days. It also helped to reduce the stress for the child and their mother.
David commented: “People with a learning disability or autism can face many health inequities in accessing health and care services. Changing the location of the inpatient clinics, working together with other professionals and being flexible in how services are delivered are ways in which we can ensure equitable access to healthcare services”.
Thank you David for sharing your story. You can view more inequality action stories from our workforce here.
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