The first step to reaching a diagnosis is to have a consultation. This can be either face-to-face or remote, although we would recommend face-to-face if possible as that enables me to examine your child during the consultation.
To arrange a consultation
Please contact us by:
Phone – 07581 046 963
Email – paediatricneurology@drkinali.com
We will always try to arrange a mutually convenient date and time.
Prior to the first consultation
We will ask you to complete some triaging forms and obtain, if possible, a referral letter. If you have any correspondence to share regarding your child, please check with our office. If you have any videos to share regarding your child in advance, please check with us regarding informed consent. If you would rather be seeing the doctor to discuss your concerns separately without your child, please let us know at this stage.
What to expect at the first consultation
The first consultation will typically take an hour and includes a discussion about symptoms, a neurological examination and an explanation of any tests or investigations that are suggested. Follow up consultations typically last half an hour and usually are to go through test results, any next steps or medication reviews. Any video material of your child movements could be reviewed at this stage. We will only store this material in your child’s electronic records subject to a separate signed consent.
Fees and Insurance
Consultation fees are either billed directly to your health insurer or to you via card payment.
When booking the consultation, please try to have your insurance details available (Provider, Membership Number and Authorisation Number), so we can bill them directly, although you will be asked to give these again when you register on the day of the consultation.
If you are self paying, we will ask for your card details before the consultation. Please note that you will also be asked for these when you register on the day of the consultation. These details are only held by the hospital and not passed to consultants, so you will be asked for the same information twice, due to data protection regulations.
What happens after the first consultation?
After your first consultation with us, a letter is prepared which outlines everything discussed and includes any suggested investigations. This is sent to you and your GP (once you have given consent to share information) and is also used to arrange tests, or as a referral to other specialists. Each specialist or investigating department will contact you separately to arrange dates and times.
Where possible, we try to group things together to avoid you having to travel numerous times, but sometimes this is difficult to do, especially since Covid as extra precautions are now built into many of our investigatory processes which does extend timings.
As investigations are carried out, results from tests are given to us and we will contact you to arrange the follow up consultation. This can be a relatively short process, or a lengthy one dependent on investigations, but we will advise you about this in the first consultation and arrange the follow up consultation based on these timings.
Follow up consultations
We try to gather as many investigatory results together as possible before arranging a follow up consultation to minimise the number of visits or remote consultations needed as we appreciate that making these arrangements can be difficult.
During the follow up consultation the results will be explained and recommendations made regarding either next steps for further investigations, medications pescribed, referrals to alternative medical professionals or advice that no further neurological intervention is needed.
If further follow up consultations are advised, then we simply repeat the process.