What is the difference between a health visitor, a GP and a paediatrician?
Three different roles with different training and different jobs — and knowing which one to approach saves a great deal of time, particularly in the first few years.
Health visitor. A registered nurse or midwife with additional specialist community public health training. They are the main point of contact for the health and development of under-fives in the UK, and the service is universal — every family gets one, without referral.
What they do: routine developmental reviews, feeding support, weaning, sleep, behaviour, growth monitoring, immunisation advice, maternal mental health, and safeguarding. They work preventively and can visit at home.
What they do not do: diagnose or treat illness, or prescribe. A health visitor will refer onward when something needs medical attention.
GP. A qualified doctor specialising in general practice — the entry point for illness, injury, prescribing and referral for both children and adults. They see acute problems, manage ongoing conditions, and are the gateway to specialist services. Children are not registered with a separate children's doctor in the UK; they are registered with the family GP.
Paediatrician. A doctor who has specialised in children's medicine, working in hospital or community services. They see children referred with more complex, unusual or serious problems, and sub-specialise further — paediatric cardiology, neurology, respiratory medicine and so on.
Access is normally by referral, usually from a GP, though some routes exist through health visiting, schools or the emergency department.
Others you will encounter: the community midwife, who hands over to the health visitor around ten to fourteen days after birth; school nurses, who take over from health visitors at school age; community paediatricians, who lead on development, disability and neurodevelopmental assessment; and speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists, reached by referral and sometimes by self-referral.
A practical rule: development, feeding, sleep, behaviour and growth in the under-fives — health visitor. Illness, injury, prescriptions or a referral — GP. Anything urgent — 111 or 999.