About your visit
About your visit
Please see the videos below which should answer most of your questions.
Essentially, once you have spoken to my Practice Manager, Kate, and organised a time for the outpatient clinic appointment, please arrive approximately 10-15 minutes beforehand so that your child can have weight and height performed by the nursing staff and we can fill out the necessary paperwork. We will endeavour to see you on time and you will then have as much time as you require to answer all the questions and to have the evaluation of the problem fully sorted with a plan in place. If there are any investigations, generally these will be done on the same day, and I would direct you to our investigation page of this website. Equally, if there are any other people that I need you to see, such as Dietitians or Speech & Language Feeding Therapists or Psychologists, then these will be arranged to occur as quickly as possible but probably on a separate day.
Any inpatient or day case admissions for endoscopy would be organised by Kate and she is well versed in all the logistical arrangements. She will be able to help you with any questions you might have regarding insurance companies etc. The vast majority of admissions are as day case procedures and these would be electively planned around your schedules. Endoscopies occur on a Wednesday morning and any bowel preparation would be prescribed in the outpatient clinic. Instructions on how and when to give these will be given by Kate to you along with all the logistical issues that you will need to know in terms of starving etc.
To note that in children’s medicine there are medications that are “unlicensed” and this means that they have not had specific studies in that age group and that studies on medications that are used in adults are then used as evidence for their efficacy in children. If unlicensed medications are used Professor Thomson would mention this to parents and there is always a good reason for using these. A significant proportion of medicines are so called “unlicensed” but this does not mean they are dangers or have any side effects that are untoward and it merely means that they have no had specific testing in the paediatric age group. However many medicines that are unlicensed or “off label” have been tested it is just that they have not been tested to the same standards that adult testing has occurred in. There is common practice in Paediatrics and we are required to tell the parents about this by way of this document. Of course if there are any questions about any medications Professor Thomson would answer those during the consultation and subsequently if necessary.
You will meet with Dr Jonathan Smith or Dr Phil Cunnington the Paediatric Anaesthetist, and myself, on the day and I will be able to feedback to you straight after the endoscopy about any abnormalities that have been found and then a plan for a follow up visit will be made.
You are very welcome to call us at any point to discuss any of the issues that you are not clear about either preceding the outpatient appointment or hospital admission or subsequently.
