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Malnutrition in hospitals still a major worry
"A good start, but there is still much to be done" - that is the verdict of Age Concern, 12 months on from the launch of its Hungry to be Heard campaign. One year ago today, Age Concern launched a new campaign and report that revealed that six out of ten older people are at risk of becoming malnourished, or their situation getting worse, in hospital. The report set out Age Concern's call to action for the Department of Health, The Healthcare Commission and the NHS. Age Concern called for all hospitals to implement seven steps to ensure they effectively challenge and stop malnutrition occurring in hospital. Today the charity can reveal that, although a number of hospitals have started to implement some of the seven steps, take up varies enormously and many older people are still going hungry in hospital. Gordon Lishman, Director General of Age Concern, said: "Not one older person should go malnourished in hospital, and we are proud that this issue is now getting more of the attention it deserves. We welcome the commitment by ministers, hospitals and health professionals to improve the situation, but we need to see this translated into every ward in every hospital." "The NHS has made a good start, but there is still much to be done. While we know of hospitals that have introduced protected mealtimes and red tray systems, this is still very hit-and-miss and too many hospitals are not making effective use of these systems or volunteers to help with meal times. More needs to be done to act on the views and experiences of older people who have been hospital." "Our next challenge is to ensure every hospital effectively implements our seven steps and we urge anyone who has been, or has a relative who has been, affected by malnutrition in hospital over the last year to contact us so we can help to bring about change in every hospital." Since Age Concern launched its campaign, Ivan Lewis MP, the care services minister, has held two summit meetings with key stakeholders and has made a commitment to launch an action plan on nutritional care in October 2007. The Royal College of Nursing, representing nearly 200,000 nurses in England, has also launched the Nutrition Now campaign. As part of its ongoing work assessing dignity in care of older people, the Healthcare Commission will be publishing findings from a recent series of inspections assessing the dignity given to older people while in care, including an assessment of nutrition and help with eating, in September. The National Patient Safety Agency has focused on protected mealtimes and has produced some practical guides to introducing protected mealtimes on wards. Dr Peter Carter, RCN General Secretary, said: "Good nutrition and hydration is essential to all of us and especially important to those receiving care; that's why the Royal College of Nursing is pleased to support the Hungry to be Heard campaign." "Delivery of quality care to patients is the number one priority of nurses and NHS staff should be at the forefront of tackling malnutrition. However, to ensure that good patient nutrition happens, it needs to be a priority for everybody in the system from the chief executives through to catering staff." Marcia Fry, Head of Operational Development at the Healthcare Commission, said: "Dignity in care for older people - including whether their nutritional needs are being met - is a key priority for the Healthcare Commission. Our work has shown that society still has 'deep-rooted attitudes to aging' and this often impacts on attempts to improve health and social care." "Age Concern's findings are encouraging but more needs to be done. We are continuing to assess NHS performance on treating older people with dignity and respect and where there are failings, we are ensuring they are followed up and actions taken." Caroline Lecko, Nutrition Lead at the The National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA), said: "The NPSA has identified malnutrition as a patient safety issue, and is working closely with key stakeholders and frontline NHS staff on programmes of work designed to improve both nutrition and hydration in hospitals." "These include working with trusts to raise awareness of the importance of nutritional screening of patients on admission to hospital, and identifying the barriers to this; collaborating on the development of a toolkit which provides practical and easily implemented advice for healthcare staff on hydration best practice; and promoting reporting of patient safety incidents involving patient nutrition to our National Reporting and Learning System." "We will also continue to monitor the implementation of both nutritional screening and Protected Mealtimes via the Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) assessment process." Age Concerns seven steps to end malnutrition in hospitals: 1: Hospital staff must listen to older people, their relatives and carers and act on what they say 2: All ward staff must become 'food aware' 3: Hospital staff must follow their own professional codes and guidance from other bodies. 4: Older people must be assessed for the signs or danger of malnourishment on admission and at regular intervals during their stay. 5: Introduce 'protected mealtimes'. 6: Implement a 'red tray' system and ensure that it works in practice. 7: Use volunteers where appropriate. www.ageconcern.org.uk
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