BDA Press Centre

Hospital food on the agenda at Health and Nutrition Conference

Members of the BDA’s Food Counts Group will be speaking at the forthcoming Health and Nutrition Conference on (23/24 November) as well as running a parallel session in dealing with malnourishment in hospital patients.

With 40% of patients entering hospital already malnourished the topic of nutrition in care has come to the fore in recent months with the launch of the Ten Key Characteristics for good nutritional care by the Council of Europe Alliance (UK) and the ‘Improving Nutrition’ Action Plan, which has identified five key priorities for delivering improved nutritional care to the most vulnerable people in our society.

The Group has developed ‘Nutritional Care through food and beverage services’, which is a toolkit for dietitians to address the needs of all patients. Dietitians in food policy or catering specialist roles, and any other dietitians working with caterers, can use these tools to implement good nutrition care within local settings. The toolkit also encourages the development of vital partnerships with hospital caterers and suppliers to deliver food of great nutritional quality to patients.

Toni Williams, chair of the Food Count Group, said: “At the Conference we want to build on the Better Hospital Food aspirations by encouraging all dietitians and caterers to work with other health professionals locally to ensure food is delivering nutritional quality.

“Hospital food is no longer a specialised area of nutritional care, and along with dietitians, it has taken centre stage in helping all patients get better quicker. Under-nutrition is the result of poor nutritional care. It not only contributes to a lot of misery and ill-health but prevents individuals from gaining the maximum benefit from the treatments they receive and as a result they are more likely to suffer complications such as hospital acquired infections.”

Ends
21st November 2007

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