Plymouth hospital projects improves child surgery

Plym Children’s Theatres have recently introduced the ‘Thirst Project’, aiming to improve the experience of children having surgery.

The project aims to allow children to drink clear fluids up to an hour before their operation, resulting in reduced stress response, post-op nausea and vomiting, and improved cooperativeness.

Dr Simon Martin, consultant paediatric anaesthetist at Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust, said: “The recovery staff helped introduce a series of measures and have continued to collect data on over 1,200 patients to ensure we continue to improve. We are aiming to have 95 per cent of our patients having fluids within four hours and are currently at 80 per cent. Before we started the project, only 60 per cent of our patients had had fluids within this time.

“A long fasting time can increase anxiety, nausea and vomiting and perception of pain in children. Evidence on gastric emptying and experience from other centres show it is safe to give clear fluids up to an hour before general anaesthesia and we have found that it has been particularly helpful in improving the cooperativeness of children with additional learning needs.”