Hospital spot-checks reveal urgent need to improve nutritional care - regulator has concerns about 48 hospitals Oct 2011

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.

“Every patient should be screened for malnutrition on admission, have a nutritional care plan in place, and their needs for food, drink, nutritional supplements and support in eating must be met.  All hospital trusts should take immediate action to ensure this is happening for every patient. 

“Just as hospitals which fail to care for patients in single sex accommodation are fined, so should hospitals which leave patients malnourished. The Government should urgently set out how it will eliminate malnutrition and dehydration among older patients.”

Further information about the hospitals that the CQC identified as needing to improve can be found here.

The full list of the hospitals inspected as part of the CQC’s inspection programme can be found here.