Patients can have 200mL an hour of non-cloudy fluids until they are called into surgery, new national guidance says.

Children aged 16 or younger and weighing 65kg or less should be allowed up to 3mL an hour per kilogram of weight, according to the ‘Sip Til Send’ guidance, released by the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare this month.

However, the protocol is not recommended for patients labelled ‘nil by mouth’ for medical or surgical reasons, or for those taking GLP-1 receptor agonists — which slow absorption of gastric contents — or texture-modified fluids.

While some hospitals had already adopted Sip Til Send protocols, the new guidance established the practice as clinically accepted, anaesthetist Professor David Scott told AusDoc.