"Gastroenterology Hub"

My daughter was referred to the Gastro Hub in the Ulster Hospital Dundonald and was seen by Consultant McCullough. 

My 19year old daughter has additional needs and complexed medical conditions. My daughter also has situational mutism. At first I don’t think Mr McCullough fully understood my daughters communication difficulties and her level of understanding and advice that she could mentally cope with, but he listened to my concerns and advice on how best to approach my daughter to build a trusting relationship as she was planned to have investigations related to a substantial unintentional weight loss. 

My daughter also had to be seen by Dietician Christine - my daughter clicked with Christine straight away and is still under review by her, that special trusting relationship with Christine is very much ongoing today!! 

Mr McCullough and I worked together on how to best “prep” my daughter for her planned investigations and her compliance was 100% and thankfully nothing serious was found! 

Mr McCullough discharged my daughter back in January 2025 and at our last consultation he informed us that he indeed had learnt a lot himself during his time managing my daughters case due to her additional needs, her ASD, Communication and level of understanding, furthermore I took this as an acknowledgment of allowing me to have  input into her consultations as being her Mum I know her very well and also given her age she has the capacity to consent. Although in my daughter’s situation it’s all about how it is explained to her and the amount of information given to her at any one time - this has to be in bitesize manageable chunks. 

I contacted the Radiology department in RVH were my daughter was to undergo a Gastric emptying study with radiation. I asked the staff could they provide a social story to help her understand what the procedure involved. Unfortunately they had never heard of this before so I explained what was involved in compiling a social story. Within two days they had contacted me to ask for my email address so I could look at the social story they put together and asked me for feedback if anything needed changed. I reviewed it and it was perfect!!

I have since sent social stories to the Gastro Hub to disseminate within their teams for investigations/procedures that may help other service users with similar needs as my daughter. I was so happy when I received feedback to say this had been done - it helps parents/guardians/carers like myself and most importantly helps reduce anxiety for the service users themselves. 

To have a Consultant verbally state that they had learnt something meant a lot to not only my daughter but especially me her Mum - THANK YOU Mr McCullough for everything, keep up the great work at the Gastro Hub UHD!!