Nutrition and hydration week 23-29 January 2012 Jan 2012

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 Authority (NPSA) to launch a week focused on nutrition and hydration: 'A taste of patient safety'.

Poor nutrition and hydration leads to poor health, increased and prolonged hospital admissions, and increased costs to the NHS.  The consequences of poor nutrition and hydration are well documented and include increased risk of infection, delayed wound healing, decreased muscle strength, depression and, sadly, in some cases, premature death. 

During the week NPSA and Patient Safety First will be holding a series of online seminars to highlight the importance of nutrition and hydration in delivering safe care.  An online forum will also enable interested parties to share their own plans for the week and to submit case studies and examples of how high quality and safe nutrition and hydration can be delivered to patients in the NHS, social care and community settings. 

The NPSA and Patients Safety First are also encouraging supporters of the campaign to sign the nutrition and hydration patient safety pledge.  Further information about the pledge can be found here.   

A number of organisations, such as the Royal College of Nursing, British Association of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition and the National Nurses Group are already supporting the campaign.

Further details on the Nutrition and Hydration week can be found here.