Simple, safe, and kind change for Redcliffe surgical patients

Redcliffe Hospital’s Dr David Whybrew.

Redcliffe Hospital has rolled out a simple, safe, and kind way to make surgical patients more comfortable.

The new approach is called ‘sip til send’ and it allows most surgical patients access to fasting fluids right up until they reach the theatre door.

Dr David Whybrew is Redcliffe Hospital’s Director of Anaesthetics and says the hospital’s new approach follows national and international best practice.

“Sip til send is evidence-based best practice originally pioneered in Scotland. Hospitals in Australia are increasingly recognising it as a simple, safe, and kind way of improving patient comfort and post-surgical outcomes,” he said.

Redcliffe Hospital cares for around 800 surgical cases each month and adopted sip til send across its entire surgical service line in April.

Dr Whybrew said the rollout at Redcliffe had gone very well, with lots of positive feedback, especially from the nursing team caring for patients before and after their procedures.

“Sip til send applies to both elective and emergency surgical patients – though emergency patients will benefit most,” Dr Whybrew said.

“Before sip til send, if an emergency surgical patient had something to drink, it could mean delaying their surgery for hours and missing out on opportunities to have their surgery sooner. At the same time, not allowing a patient anything to drink while they’re waiting for surgery often made them even more uncomfortable.”

Dr Whybrew said not all surgical patients were suitable for sip til send, especially those deemed strictly ‘nil by mouth’ or those needing thickened fluids.

“There is a limit to the kinds of fluid a patient can have, and how much they can have too. While it’s not a lot, it’s enough to make them much more comfortable,” he said.

“One of the great things about a hospital the size of Redcliffe is that we offer a broad range of surgical services, but we’re also of the size that under the leadership of Dr Leah Purcell, the Medical Director of Surgical Services, it is relatively straightforward to make these simple improvements that benefit the majority of our surgical patients.

“In one or two years, I’d expect sip til send to be the standard at many hospitals, big and small.”