Tens of thousands harmed in hospital by IV drip blunders Dr Mike Stroud, Consultant in Gastroenterology at Southampton University Hospitals NHS Trust, who chaired the review, said: "We found doctors are not educated in what a patient needs and that's astonishing really. You have got this extraordinary situation where prescribing is going on where the doctors don't actually know what they wish to give, nor what they are giving. How on earth are we in this position? I don't have an explanation. I think it is because of this lack of belonging to a speciality. You have got the situation where fluid physiology is taught fairly well but no one had the responsibility for taking everything and integrating it into a curriculum of IV fluid prescribing. IV fluids are one of the most commonly prescribed items in hospitals but as many as nine in 10 medics do not know what they are doing when prescribing them, NICE warned. People are put on drips for reasons including delivering fluids to dehydrated patients or to correct chemical imbalances in the blood. The most recent statistics showed that one in five patients who received too little fluid before surgery and a third who received too much died within 30 days of their procedure. Where IV fluids are given incorrectly patients can suffer from kidney and heart failure as well as developing conditions such as pneumonia from "soggy lungs." It can also increase a surgical patients' likelihood of getting bed sores and suffer difficulties with wounds. NICE has called for an IV champion to be installed in every hospital to ensure that all medics are better educated in the way patients who need fluids are cared for. Each patient should also have an "IV fluid management plan" which will include details of their fluid and electrolyte prescriptions. Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive of the Patients Association said: "As many as one in five patients on IV fluids suffers harm and that is a staggering number. It's essential that all staff receive support and training in the administration of IV fluids and hospitals should ensure time is dedicated to this. There needs to be a whole hospital approach to making sure this guidance is put into practice. Dr Jerry Nolan, an intensive care consultant who also helped develop the guidance, said much of the problem lies in current training. We know that some elements of the undergraduate curriculum will include the physiology of fluids but it appears that there is some disconnect between what they learn at medical school and a lack of practical application when they become doctors. I think it's really important that health care professionals understand that fluids are effectively drugs, and just as the case with any drug, the dose of fluid therapy is very important and that is something that is often being forgotten. Earlier this year Nice said there is a "wide variation in practice" for administering fluids through an intravenous drip. NHS employees without the right knowledge or training are sometimes left to care for patients who need such treatment, and many "overworked" staff and may not have time to give patients the attention that they need, it warned. Professor Mark Baker, director of the Centre for Clinical Practice at Nice, added: "The care of a patient needing intravenous fluid therapy can vary considerably depending on where they live and this new guideline will go a long way in helping to support healthcare professionals to provide the best level of care." Tom McLoughin-Yip (CORR) who suffers from cystic fibrosis and needs fluids regularly said he had rarely been told what he was receiving. I've been in hospital before not where a nurse came into my room and said that she was putting a bad of fluid up. I wasn't told what the fluid was, what it was for, or for how long I would need it. This is a bigger problem than you think.