Findings from the latest national Nutrition Screening Week Survey and Audit published by the British Association of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN) demonstrate that action is urgently needed to tackle malnutrition across all age groups and in all care settings.
The National Prescribing Centre (NPC) has published new guiding principles for oral nutrition supplements (ONS) for adults . ONS are a critical form of nutritional support for patients who, for a variety of reasons, cannot meet their nutritional needs through food alone. They are an important tool for clinicians in tackling malnutrition – which affects more than 3 million people in the UK and is particularly common among the elderly.
Carers UK and Nutricia have published a new report, Malnutrition and Caring: the hidden cost for families, which shows that without the right advice and support, families managing the health conditions of older and disabled family members end up struggling to cope with the consequences of malnutrition
Patient Safety First, a campaign group which focuses on improving patient safety in the health service, has announced that on 23 January it will be partnering with the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) to launch a week focused on nutrition and hydration: 'A taste of patient safety'.
The long awaited Food Information to Consumers Regulation was published in November 2011. This new Regulation will result in changes to most food and drink labels, including those of specialist nutrition products. The majority of these label changes will need to be made by December 2014 in accordance with the transition periods for the Regulation.
The European Commission's proposal to revise the current legislation for Foods for Particular Nutritional Uses (PARNUTs), known as the 'PARNUTs Framework Directive', has been under discussion by the European Council of Ministers since October 2011 and the Polish Presidency of the Council has issued a report on the progress to date as part of its handover to the new Danish Presidency which will take over from 1 January 2012.
The European Commission published a proposal to revise the current legislation for Foods for Particular Nutritional Uses (PARNUTs), known as the 'PARNUTs Framework Directive', in June 2011. The Commission proposal is now under discussion by the European Council of Ministers.
Representatives from the European Parliament, the Polish Presidency of the EU and other groups concerned about health and nutrition have come together to raise awareness of the problems of disease related malnutrition across the EU and subsequent consequences on healthcare. Disease related malnutrition affects around 20 million EU citizens per year at a cost of up to 120 billion Euros.
Responding to the report on the Daily Mail about the findings of the Care Quality Commission's hospital spot-checks, Roger Clarke, Director General of BSNA says:
“Hospitals are still not getting the basics right and this is unacceptable. Nutritional care is not just a 'nice-to-have', it's essential for every patient. Without good nutrition, patients cannot be expected to recover well from illness or injury. We are deeply concerned that so many hospitals were identified by the CQC as needing to improve.
The NHS White Paper, Equity and excellence: Liberating the NHS, published in July 2010, and subsequent consultations confirmed that in the future the NHS will focus on delivering improvements in patient outcomes rather than on processes and targets. BSNA asked its expert members to give thought to the key elements of a quality standard on nutrition to help to stimulate discussion among the nutrition community of what high quality nutritional care should look like in hospital and, indeed, in other care settings.