DoH: Nutrition is a priority

Nutrition in hospitals is a "priority issue", the Department of Health (DoH) has insisted.

It says nutrition is "important for all patients" and claims steps are in place to improve the quality of food and its provision in hospitals.

The department's comments follow an article by two doctors in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) which described efforts to screen for malnutrition as "weakly policed".

The doctors claimed that malnutrition is undiagnosed in up to 70 per cent of patients and that one-fifth of patients in general hospitals are malnourished, thin or losing weight.

"Much of the research in this article is hopelessly out of date or misinterpreted. One study dates back to 2000, while another goes as far back as 1994," a Department of Health spokesperson said.

"We expect the local NHS to take their responsibilities on hospital food seriously and to make sure that hospitals meet the standards that patients rightly expect."

The spokesperson added: "Last October, [health minister] Ivan Lewis launched the nutrition action plan. This sets out that, by working together at both a national and local level, we can ensure that in the future nutrition is given a much higher priority in the NHS and social care system.

"To identify and deal with patients at risk, we have introduced protected mealtimes and have renewed the emphasis on nutritional screening. Nutrition screening is a significant part of the solution to tackle malnutrition.

"We have produced nutritional standards for service users in a hospital environment which we expect hospital staff to implement."