Implications for practice and research

• Managing conditions like autism disorder requires a multidisciplinary approach that effectively integrates subsections of medical and other professionals and facilitating patients’ and caregivers’ access to required services.

• The consequences of the rising trend of super-specialisation and sub-specialisation of medical professions on patients and their caregivers need to be studied in future studies.

Context

Studies have shown that increasing fragmentation of the healthcare system leads to systemic deficiencies, lack of coordination between professionals from collaborating disciplines, increased expenditure, inequalities and deprofessionalisation.1 2However, information on how decentralisation or fragmentation affects healthcare receivers and their caregivers requiring multidisciplinary approach is limited. Brewer’s study examines how the subdivisions of professional jurisdictions of childhood disabilities between and within …