This consultation is now closed.
Every year, hospital patients are harmed or die after choking on or breathing in food, drink and medicines.
So we have developed draft guidance to help everyone – including doctors, nurses and allied health staff, food servers and visiting family and friends – understand when a patient is on a modified diet and needs supervision.
This guidance focuses on how to communicate the needs of a high-risk dysphagic patient, as well as involve patients and the people who support them. We’ve also developed resources to help you evaluate your hospital’s current processes, and implement the new guidance.
Feedback is now open
Take our short survey to help us make sure our guidance is right, and useful for health services and clinicians.
The survey closes 4 December 2019.
We are seeking the views of healthcare staff and managers, as well as consumers.
Why did we do this?
Choking on and inhaling food are risks of unsafe eating and drinking that have led to patient deaths in Victorian health services.
Our expert working group, chaired by the Chief Allied Health Officer, reviewed these events to critically evaluate the systems and processes used in Victorian hospitals. The review has identified variation and inconsistencies in many of the systems.