On Friday 6th January 2012 the Prime Minister stated that regular nursing rounds need to return to hospitals to improve levels of patient care and ensure that vulnerable patients are properly fed and hydrated. The comment was made by the Prime Minister during a visit to the Salford Royal NHS Foundation Hospital Trust which has done a piece of work on implementing the ‘MUST’ tool in a highly reliable way using quality improvement approaches. David Cameron praised the hospital for its ‘absolutely excellent record’ in nursing care. He said “They have very high standards of care and brilliant systems in place to make sure their standards don’t slip. I think it’s a model for other hospitals to follow.”
Salford Royal Consultant Dietitian Kirstine Farrer said: “All patients are screened using the ‘MUST’ tool on admission – 90% of these within six hours of admission, which allows the implementation of a nurse care pathway and timely referrals on to the dietetic team. By having a multi-professional approach to nutritional care within the Trust we have been able to put in place a quality improvement project based on the Model for Improvement and take action to improve practice as required. Ward teams receive monthly feedback on their results to create ownership, maintain enthusiasm and generate momentum for improvement. It was identified that strong ward leadership was a key factor in success.”
If nutritional screening using a validated screening tool such as ‘MUST’ was implemented nationwide and appropriate action taken levels of nutritional care in hospitals would be hugely improved. Around 1 in 3 adults admitted to hospitals in the UK are already at risk of malnutrition and need to be identified early so nutritional care can be provided. BAPEN's 'MUST' tool includes a focus on nutritional care planning and the management of malnutrition in addition to screening so the prevalence of patients at risk of malnutrition in our hospitals and the related cost burden of over £6 billion per annum* could be greatly reduced.
‘MUST’ (the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool) has been designed to help healthcare professionals identify adults who are at risk of malnutrition and ensure appropriate care planning.
* £6b is the proportion of the >£13b total UK expenditure on disease-related malnutrition that relates to hospital costs.
Nutrition Nurse Award!
Nominations now open for the BJN award of nutrition nurses who have made a difference for their patients this year.
Nurses are fundamental to the provision of excellent nutritional care, as they identify and address the individual nutritional needs of each and every patient.
The BJN award will recognize those frontline nurse who has made a difference to nutrition nursing this year.
The BJN Awards overall celebrate and reward excellence in clinical nursing. At a time when staff and expenditure cutbacks are inevitably affecting morale, the BJN Awards 2012 are a celebration of achievement, a tangible demonstration of the continued enthusiasm for the nursing profession.
Finalists will be invited to attend a glittering black tie ceremony at the Landmark Hotel, London on 30 March, 2012 and enjoy an evening of leading guest speakers, dinner and dancing. Prizes will be awarded in 12 categories.
Enter yourself or a colleague at www.bjnawards.co.uk. Entries close 27th Jan 2012.
Call to Action! Please inform Senior Management about the importance of delivering good nutritional care
How well informed are your Senior Leaders?
Improving nutritional care has never been so important and it is crucial that our Chief Executives and senior leaders understand the importance of delivering good nutritional care.
In the opening session of the recent BAPEN conference there was a call to action for delegates to create a presentation focused on local information to help senior leaders understand the impact of poor nutrition on patients’ lives.
Here is a template power point for YOU to download, adapt and use.
PLEASE do send us your customised power point slides and share your progress with BAPEN via the BAPEN Office – bapen@bapen.org.uk.
Many thanks – we look forward to hearing from you.
BAPEN Executive Team
Here’s how to vote for the ‘MUST’ App on the DH website
The process is pretty straightforward but you must register first!
Here are step by step instructions for registering and voting for the 'MUST' app in the Department of Health's "Wouldn't it be great if..." competition. Although the procedure may seem quite lengthy, most of the steps are straightforward and do not take long to complete.
1) Click on http://departmentofhealth.ideascale.com/
2) Click on the "Register" link (top right of screen).
3) Enter your email address, type the two "CAPTCHA" words, check the "terms of service" box, and click the "Register" button.
4) Check your email address, where you should soon receive a verification message from IdeaScale.com. Click on the "Yes, this is my email!" link, towards the bottom of the message.
5) Your email address should now be confirmed, and you will be prompted to enter your password. Choose a password, enter it (twice), and click the "Change Password" button.
6) Your password is now updated. Click on the "Continue" button.
7) You should now be signed in. Optionally you can now change the name under which your vote will appear. (If you don't change it, your name will be the part of your email address before the '@' symbol. For example, if your email address is john.smith@gmail.com, your name will show as john.smith.) To change your name, hover your mouse cursor over your profile name (top right of screen) and click on "Profile" in the drop down list. You can then update your name and click the "Save Changes" button. Finally, hover your mouse cursor over your profile name and click on "My Community Activity" in the drop down list.
8) In the search box (towards top right), enter BAPEN and click the search button. You should now see the BAPEN 'MUST' app idea. (If for any reason you do not see the search box, or if the search does not work, you can also click on Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool ('MUST' App from BAPEN).)
9) Click on "I agree" to vote for the app.
10) Optionally, click on the link for the app itself and add a comment (near the bottom of the page.)
Issued: 16th June 2011
Issued: 9th June 2011
Issued: 2nd June 2011
Issued: Thursday 26 May 2011
BAPEN’s response to the CQC Report published 26 May 2011 on Dignity and Nutrition Care in 12 Hospitals
Dr Mike Stroud, Chair of BAPEN responds:
"Hospitals are legally bound to comply with the CQC's standards of nutritional care. It is totally unacceptable that 1 in 4 hospitals inspected were found to be non-compliant and disappointing that the CQC were not happy with standards of nutritional care seen in a further 3 hospitals. BAPEN has long campaigned for all patients to be weighed and screened for malnutrition on admission so that patients at risk can be identified and treated. If screening does not take place, malnutrition remains unidentified and untreated which results in increased complications, longer hospital stays and even death.
There really is no excuse. Hospitals have all the evidence, guidance and training materials they need - much of it provided by BAPEN. They should by now have made nutritional care a priority and have focused on redesigning systems to ensure that good nutritional care is delivered to all patients - it is therefore unbelievable that so many patients are still being let down by managers and staff over such fundamental issues of care."
Media enquiries:
Helen Lawn T: 01892 525141 M: 07879 818247 E: helen@helenlawn.co.uk Or
Charlotte Messer M: 07928 700277 E: charlotte@helenlawn.co.uk
Hospital Food Fight - Programme & Campaign
Dispatches Programme Channel 4 Monday 21 February 8pm
Watch this programme that charts the experience of one journalist of hospital food during a 6 month stay and has prompted the setting up of a campaign to improve nutritional care including screening.
Click here for information on the programme and here for the campaign
Click here for BAPEN’s media statement
Paul Burstow, Minister of State for Care Services statement
Paul Burstow, Minister of State for Care Services and Lead for Older People
and Care Services
"Good nutrition and hydration are vital to help people maintain good health, recover from illness and get back on their feet. Yet too often, poor practice and lack of attention to the basics, like assistance with eating, means older people in our care homes and hospitals are not getting the food and drink they need. I welcome the leadership shown by BAPEN and the many other respected organisations that collaborated in developing this resource and I hope that care providers and commissioners will use it locally to make sure older people receive the nutritional care they are entitled to."
Paul Burstow's office has confirmed that the DH Social Care Policy Team will promote the Toolkit via the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE), e-bulletins to members of the DH Care Networks, explore putting reference to this in communications with the NHS an social care including the Chief Nursing Officer and Social Care bulletins, and share this resource with organisations that represent care providers, patients, service users and carers.
The Health Select Committee has now published its report on commissioning
The chapter on specialised commissioning draws extensively on the evidence, both written and oral submitted by the Specialised Healthcare Alliance (SHCA) of which BAPEN is a member. Key points include:
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Acknowledgement of the significant improvements brought about by Carter;
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Highlights the threat posed by the regulatory limbo occupied by SCGs and the threat posed to funding for specialised services as we enter the downturn
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Recommends that the DH undertake a review of the problems, taking into account the SHCA’s proposal that SCGs should be re-located within SHAs and funded directly.
The Committee’s conclusions and recommendation are reproduced below and a copy of the full report can be found at:
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmhealth.htm.
Conclusions
54. The implementation of the Carter Review has made significant improvements to the commissioning of specialised services over the past four years. However, we are concerned that insufficient progress has been made, with significant local variations; and that some important issues remain outstanding.
55. Carter recommended the revision of the National Definitions Set; this does not appear to have gone far enough. The DH must indicate what it will do to ensure that the fourth edition commands wider confidence and support among commissioners.
56. Worryingly, the evidence which we received indicates that many PCTs are still disengaged from specialised commissioning. Furthermore, there is a danger that the low priority many PCTs give to it will mean that funding for specialised commissioning will be disproportionately cut in the coming period of financial restraint. In addition, specialised commissioning is weakened by the fact that, as a pooled responsibility between PCTs, it sits in a “limbo”, where it is not properly regulated, performance managed, scrutinised or held to account. There is much to commend the Specialised Healthcare Alliance’s proposal to bypass the PCTs altogether, making the National Commissioning Group and the Specialised Commissioning Groups into commissioners in their own right, although there is some risk that this could lead to a lack of co-ordination of, and disruption to, services. We recommend that the DH undertake a review of the problems we have highlighted, taking into account the Specialised Healthcare Alliance’s proposal.