We recently heard about an elderly patient with dysphagia who on being sent home raised an issue with the preparation of a thickened drink, as none of the carers felt confident in their ability to prepare them safely, having not had training in the use of tinned thickeners.

This resulted in a safety issue, as the patient could not be left at home without support in this area, and the complexity of preparing the drinks with tinned thickeners made delivering this support tricky. Although by the end of the shift and with the help of four clinicians from different departments the issue was sorted, it did highlight how such a seemingly mundane situation could cause significant complications.

Having heard about this we told her about Slõ Drinks. The first reply was “They seem expensive.” We suggested they are good value?

If they had used Slõ Drinks the carers training would have been, “Add this sachet to this amount of liquid whilst stirring and leave for x minutes”.

The issue would have been easily solved without stressful training sessions for the carer. No need to spend a day on the phone or need four clinicians to help and ultimately a better solution for the user.

Adding the costs of all that up – financial and emotional– Slõ Drinks are exceptionally good value.