It's actually a bit of a question the reason why I write this. I know that there are doctors and similar who read this blog and I'm kind of hoping that they can answer the question that I have.

First a little background. Our patient is a 93 year old female who lives in a nursing home; she'd been discharged from hospital earlier this week following a chest infection. Over the past day she had gone off her food and was refusing to drink. The nursing home's GP was called and he prescribed something that scared the hell out of us ambulance folk.

One TSP of table salt, stirred into lemon juice to be taken three times a day.

I'm hoping that 'TSP' is teaspoon and not tablespoon.

Is it any wonder that she is refusing to drink when the next thing past her lips could be incredibly salty. I would also imagine that this would upset her stomach.

I know that if someone has a low amount of salt in their blood it is a problem - but I've never seen it treated in this fashion before. I would actually consider this 'treatment' abuse.

We contacted the LAS HEMS doctor (note their new website, they are even having a go at a blog, although they should get rid of the helicopter sound). He was also shocked by this 'treatment'.

So - before I put in a formal complaint about what I consider an inappropriate and possibly dangerous treatment, I just want to be sure that I haven't missed some brilliant new research that shows giving salty drinks to little old ladies is preferable to the way we normally treat a low salt content in the blood.