Elderly in British hospitals malnourished

Aug 30 2006

If you are elderly and sick in Britain, hospital may not be the best place for you.

A survey by the charity Age Concern has found that elderly people are malnourished in hospitals and lives are being put at risk.

Government Health minister Caroline Flint was forced to admit yesterday that elderly people were still malnourished in some hospitals, despite government initiatives to ensure they received help during mealtimes.

Age Concern says that 90% of 500 nurses questioned did not always have time to help elderly people eat or drink and the NHS was continuing to fail patients despite guidelines which make feeding a core priority.

Malnutrition is estimated to cost the UK over £7.3bn a year as malnourished patients stay in hospital for much longer, are three times as likely to develop complications during surgery, and have a higher mortality rate.

It is a problem which particularly affects the elderly and patients over 80 admitted to hospital have a five times higher prevalence of malnutrition than those under the age of 50.

The charity has called for the views of patients, and their carers to be considered, ward staff to become 'food aware', older patients to be assessed for malnutrition on admission, and regularly during their stay, the introduction of protected mealtimes and the implementation of a 'red tray' system.

Ms Flint said it was vital that patients' aftercare received the same priority as their original condition and although the government has introduced guidelines to deal with the problem, she accepts that malnutrition was still a concern.

The charity's survey which was linked to its campaign Hungry to be Heard, found that hospitals are in danger of becoming bad for the health of older people, said Gordon Lishman, the director general of the charity.

He says food, and help with eating it, should be recognised as an essential part of care, and nurses should be given time to perform this task.

Lishman says the majority of older patients are being denied some of the basic care they need, leaving hundreds of thousands malnourished.

The Royal College of Nursing says the survey has underlined that, for many nurses, time had become a luxury.

A Department of Health spokesperson said a summit on how best to improve care of older people was planned for the autumn.