Day of Surgery

Day of Surgery

• Our staff will inform you of the time that you need to start fasting and when to arrive at the hospital. After you arrive, you’ll be taken to the DOSA (Day of Surgery Admission) lounge for nursing admission.
• You’ll then be transferred to the operating theatre (OT) for your surgery
• After surgery you will be taken from the theatre to recovery, and then to the surgical ward
• When you get to the ward you will be fairly groggy, so will need to “buzz” for help when you get up and go to the toilet. Most people have tablets for pain relief, occasionally intravenous (IV) pain relief is used, however we try to avoid this as it causes nausea
• Immediately after surgery you can start sipping water, and once you are comfortable you can start having a wider range of fluids to drink.
• The following day after surgery we let people get around the ward by themselves, and ask them to drink so we can plan to take down the intravenous (IV) fluids. The moment people can drink a litre of all fluids in a 24 hour period we let them head home.
• Hospital stay: typically you’ll stay for 2 nights and then will be discharged to go home. A shorter hospital stay is possible for people who start drinking earlier.
• A copy of your operation report and a management protocol specific to your surgery is sent to your GP, to ensure they are kept informed of your journey.