Moves to restrict autism diagnosis could fall foul of the law as disability discrimination.
That’s the view of special needs solicitor Laxmi Patel. She is a partner with law firm Boyes Turner.
Special needs lawyer Laxmi Patel: she believes moves to restrict autism diagnosis only to children with comorbidities could be open to judicial review
The NHS in south-west London is considering restricting the numbers of children that it diagnoses with autism. It would focus instead only on those with a comorbidity, such as depression.
Form of disability discrimination
But autism is a recognised disability. Patel believes that suggesting the NHS would only diagnose those who also have other conditions may be a form of disability discrimination.
She said: “It could possibly be considered disability discrimination. It would be up to somebody who is affected by it directly to challenge that.”
A meeting of the South West London and St George’s Mental Health Trust heard waiting times for an autism diagnosis have exceeded 10 months.
The team has a capacity of 750 assessments a year. However, the list is nearly twice that number, with around 1,300 individuals waiting.
To reduce demand, the South West London Alliance of five clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) has asked the trust to focus on cases where there is also a mental health condition or comorbidity .
Kingston, Richmond, Merton, Wandsworth and Sutton are the CCGs considering the change.
Policy open to challenge
But Patel maintains that the policy is open to challenge through a judicial review.
Autism Eye asked Patel how strong the grounds would be for a judicial review. She replied: “I would say fairly strong. It’s not diagnosing plenty of other children out there.”
The National Autistic Society (NAS) has also questioned the legality of such a move.
Sarah Lambert is head of policy at the NAS. She said the organisation believes the move would go against clinical commissioning groups’ “legal duty”. This duty is to ensure that children can get a diagnosis.
A statement from the South West London Alliance of CCGs said it had not yet decided anything.
Published: 1 June 2017
