Specialist referral (Broken hand)

When I was younger, I broke my hand. My mum took me to my normal GP, and we were told to go and have x-rays. This all went fine, and I was referred to a hand specialist. However, when we went to the specialist, he told us that he was going on holidays, and couldn’t deal with my injury. This part was fine, however it was quite obvious that he was also trying to hide the fact that he didn’t know what to do, due to the fact that my CP severely affects the hand that was broken. My mum then emailed my specialist OT at Perth Children’s Hospital, who was very helpful, and told us to bring the x-rays to the emergency department, so that the nurses could cast my arm properly. We did as he advised, and the casting was successful. This just goes to show that when health professionals in the adult health system are faced with a helping patient with a disability who they have never met previously, even if they are specialist in their field, they are too scared to do their job, as they are unsure how to approach the situation, and fear making the situation worse.