Core Groups Updates

Carolyn Wheatley, PINNT Chair

Email: comms@pinnt.com

Website: www.pinnt.com

Facebook: @PINNTcharity

Twitter: @pinntcharity

Instagram: @pinntcharity

Address: PO Box 3126, Christchurch, Dorset BH23 2XS

Telephone: 020 3004 6193

 

PINNT: A patient and carers’ association offering mutual support and understanding, along with providing an advocacy role for people on home artificial nutrition.

Home Artificial Nutrition Week 2021 – 2-8 August, 2021
Home Artificial Nutrition Awareness (HAN) Week (2-8 August, 2021) is a week dedicated to raising awareness about essential, life-saving, nutritional treatments – parenteral nutrition, enteral nutrition and oral supplements – received by people living at home, in the community (not in hospital).

How to engage with HAN Week
You can find out more about preparing to take part in HAN Week 2021 by following this link.

• How can you get involved?
• I am a healthcare professional, part of an associated professional group, another patient group, corporate partner – can I/we get involved?
• What has PINNT planned for HAN Week?
• Who else can get involved?

We intend to continue with the social media hashtag campaign #thisisme but new for 2021 we will also be using #thisisus.

Professional groups and associations can engage with HAN Week by downloading logos and templates here to share on social media channels stories about who they are and how they are involved in artificial nutrition. Do you support someone? Are you part of a nutrition team or individual healthcare professional? Are you a professional group who work to make a difference for people on HAN? Do you provide a service or products that contributes to enabling people to live at home on HAN?

If the answer is ‘yes’ to any of the above, you can join in

Please share your story – share the valuable contribution you make to supporting people on HAN.

PINNT activity during HAN Week
During HAN Week 2021, PINNT will also be:

• Launching new resources for PINNT members
• Updating valuable resources to aid life on HAN
• Presenting Gary Taylor’s Coast-to-Coast Kayaking challenge – totally fuelled by enteral nutrition
• Presenting Ezekiel’s challenge – set yourself a challenge, it does not have to be epic or extreme. Ezekiel, who is only 8 years old, continues to encourage people to celebrate what they can do, not what they can’t
• #thisisme
• #thisisus
• We will also be sharing events and activities that PINNT’s corporate partners are doing as part of HAN Week 2021 too
• Plus, so much more!

Kate Hall, PENG Chair

Email: communications.peng@bda.uk.com

Website: www.peng.org.uk

Twitter: @BDA_PENG

Since the last edition of In Touch, PENG has held its latest webinar on nutritional requirements, in June. Both those who registered for the event and the wider PENG membership can access a recording of the webinar via the PENG member’s section on the PENG website. We are now starting to organise and promote the next webinar, which forms part of the PENG webinar series 2021. This will be held in September and focus on the PENG ‘Dietetics Outcomes Toolkit’ – you can find out more information on the PENG website.

Awards

Nominations for the 2021 PENG Award is now closed and the judges will be busy reviewing entries over the course of the summer, and the winners will be announced in due course. Thank you to all who have applied but also those who are involved in the judging process. Meanwhile, applications are still open for the BDA Research Symposium December 2021 and PENG are supporting the Nutrition Support Stream, so look out for to this.

PN Survey

PENG is in the process of finalising a parenteral nutrition survey, which we hope to send out later in the summer and then report back some preliminary results at the PENG AGM 2021 – dates of which we will announce soon as we enter the last stages of planning. Please keep an eye on social media and the PENG website.

PENG Committee

We have also seen some changes on the PENG Committee and welcome Long Li into the role of Treasurer, as Imogen Watson stood down from the role in June. The entire PENG Committee would like to take this opportunity to say a big thank you to Imogen for returning to the role at short notice, and by supporting us, both as a group and as a committee, during the past 12 months.

PENG Clinical Update Course

The PENG Clinical Update Tutor team ran its Masters course this year – during April – for the first time virtually and it was very well received. The whole team did an amazing job in turning the previously residential course into a successful virtual one, which served to meet the learning objectives of the participants in a variety of ways despite its online constraints.

Virtual HEF Forum

The Virtual HEF Forum continues to build in its new home on basecamp, and if you are interested in joining this forum, please do go to the PENG website.

Join us & get involved

If you are a dietitian, working in nutrition support and interested in becoming a PENG member, please visit our website, and if you are interested in getting involved in any of the projects that PENG is working on, please do get in touch via email.

Georgie Adams, NNNG Communications Officer

Email: nationalnursesnutritiongroup@gmail.com

Website: www.nnng.org.uk

Twitter: @NNNGUK

Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, the UK’s health and care system has been witness to innovation in the delivery of its services at a scale and pace that would have seemed beyond imagination, little over a year ago. Previously held expectations about the length of time that is needed to effect change, and make progress, continue to dissolve.

Given the backlog that health and care services now face, and the wider mental and physical health problems that have developed over these past months, unrelenting service demands remain. The priority is now to provide staff with the space and time to rest and recover. We all need some breathing space but it will, in reality, take months rather than days or weeks. Creative thinking, courage and persistence will be needed to put in place enlightened practices to retain and sustain a healthy, caring and compassionate workforce. The support needs of leaders are also important in this planning, as they have also had to contend with the relentless pressures of recent months. Fate will not create the new normal but rather the choices of the health and care system.

New website launch & logo

Innovation, creativity and pace remain at the centre of the NNNG and its activities. We can now announce the launch of our new NNNG website – please take a look. You will have seen lots of notifications on Twitter in the run-up to going live (8 July 2021).

We are also delighted with our new logo (see above).

Keeping up-to-date with the NNNG

We will also be launching a user-friendly email address, with a newly created NNNG LinkedIn site. Social media allows us to remain current and take advantage of the speed and pace of change. We want our members to share, compare and contrast, and remain inspired in their work and roles. What better way to drop updates, events and trending news stories but through our website and highlighting them through our social platforms?

We are busy tidying up the members’ section of the NNNG website, providing ease of access and a robust joining routine, including payment system.

All NNNG members are entitled to Complete Nutrition (CN) Magazine, in which the NNNG runs a regular column. You can subscribe to CN here. This regular column is also uploaded to CN’s website following publication.

The first NNNG-BJN Supplement has completed the first proof stage and is now with the editor. Natalie Welsh (NNNG Vice Chair), Suzy Cole (NGSIG) and Angela Cole (Paediatric Nutrition) worked together to bring you this exciting member benefit. A real mixed bag of national and international evidence awaits our members. The publication date is July 2021.

NNNG working with industry

The NNNG continues to receive lots of interest from industry, requesting support and platforms with webinars and marketing opportunities. NHS colleagues are also asking to advertise their nutrition jobs/vacancies. We are therefore in active discussions, setting up tariffs and bundles to make this happen. We look forward to sharing this innovative space with our colleagues and industry partners.

SAVE THE DATE: NNNG Virtual Conference – 20-24 September 2021

AUTUMN EVENINGS: Free registration with access to a virtual Nutrition Village!

Take a break and enjoy the company and comfort, by meeting and sharing best/safe practice with your colleagues and friends in the NNNG.

Sessions are filling up fast – we have a great mix of both clinical and innovative presentations scheduled.

If you have a new clinical pathway, audit outcome, service development, QI/QA project you are keen to profile and present, please get in touch by email.

NNNG Work streams – In progress & pending sign-off

• Adult NG tube guidelines await NGSIG review
• Paediatric NG tube guidelines awaiting multiple centre review
• Balloon gastrostomy guidelines – 3-yearly review awaited
• Planned for later this year, FOI to all NHS Trusts, details of nutrition nurse roles and services available nationally
• Suggestions for study day topics to be collated by the committee
• Joint working with the NNNG and the BSG nurses’ group and PINNT, awaited.

Jutta Köglmeier, BAPEN Representative of the Nutrition and Intestinal Failure Working group (NIFWG) of British society of Paediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Nutrition (BSPGHAN)

Email: Jutta.Koeglmeier@gosh.nhs.uk

Website: www.bspghan.org.uk

Meetings 2021

The annual BSPGHAN winter meeting was initially intended to take place online between January 26-28, 2021. Unfortunately, this meeting had to be cancelled due to the increasing demands on the NHS caused by COVID-19. It was rescheduled, and held, between April 27-29, 2021. The NIFWG organised a well-attended nutrition session, which received good feedback.

The NIFWG met via Teams in January and April, and a further meeting is planned for June – as we prepared for publication – where the intestinal failure (IF) guidelines should be finalised.

COVID-19

The COVID-19 pandemic remains challenging for the NHS, but thankfully children have not been severely affected. Initially, children with IF on home parenteral nutrition (HPN) were advised to shield during the first COVID-19 lockdown. However, this was later reviewed and the NIFWG members agreed that children on HPN, in general, do not fall into the clinically extremely vulnerable category. Only a small proportion continue to be considered vulnerable because of comorbidities and should be assessed by clinicians on a case-by-case basis.

Children with IF requiring HPN should only continue to shield if they meet one, or more, of the following criteria:

• primary immunodeficiency or immunodeficiency induced by drugs as part of their therapy (as in group A)
• with other significant conditions (as in group A) or other organ involvement (renal, haematology, cardiac, GI, respiratory, diabetes mellitus, etc.)
• social cofactors (e.g. heavily reliant on support from healthcare professionals/ carers)’.

e-BANS

Leaving Chair: Akshay Batra
Regional Deputy Lead and Co-Chair: Tony Wiskin
Co-Chair: Julian Thomas
Administrator: Rachel Russell, Paediatric Nutrition Nurse Specialist/ Southampton

The old dataset has been completed and closed. Data has been submitted for publication.

BAPEN

The 2020 BAPEN Annual Conference Paediatric Symposium was supposed to focus on the nutrition management of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Unfortunately, the symposium could not go ahead as the BAPEN conference was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The NIFWG hopes that the 2021 symposium will be able to take place. The symposium is dedicated to nutrition and IBD. Three speakers have confirmed their attendance:

• Kelsey Jones – Exclusive enteral nutrition and diet in IBD
• Anthi Thangarajah – Body composition in children with IBD: impact on health and disease
• Konstantinos Gerasimidis – Micronutrient deficiencies in children with IBD: prevention, diagnosis and management.

BAPEN membership for BSPGHAN members is free and several BSPGHAN members have already made use of this opportunity.

Jemma Cleminson has joined the NIFWG as our trainee BAPEN representative and will work alongside Jutta Köglmeier.

PINNT

Angela Cole and Akshay Batra will be designing a survey for patients to identify their health and social needs, to determine how PINNT can help patients to achieve them.

BIFA

BSGPHAN representative: Theo Wong
Julian Thomas and Theo Wong provided a paediatric Top Tips article for In Touch on Managing children receiving long-term parenteral nutrition. Further topics are planned.

Frontline Gastroenterology

BSPGHAN has agreed an affiliation with Frontline Gastroenterology. BSPGHAN members will receive free access to its online publication as a benefit of their membership, and poster abstracts from the BSPGHAN annual meeting, will be published in the journal

Allied Health Groups

Pharmacy: Susan Hill and Venetia Simchowitz will continue to represent the NIFWG on the National Framework for Home Parenteral Nutrition.

Dietitians: Rachel Wood will represent paediatric dietitians on NIFWG

Nutrition nurses: Angela Cole will represent paediatric nutrition nurses on NIFWG. The nutrition nurses have now also established a network of their own. Angela has prepared a poster for the safe use of enteral devices. The group will comment on the poster’s contents and an update is due.

Publications planned for 2021

• National intestinal failure rehabilitation practice guidelines
• Consensus guidelines for the management of gastrointestinal dystonia in children and young people with neurodisability
• Survey on no gut syndrome.

Email: bapen@bapen.org.uk

Website: www.bapen.org.uk/about-bapen/bapen-core-groups/bapen-medical

Following on from the success of the BAPEN Medical online teaching events last autumn and the online BAPEN conference, BAPEN Medical is planning a further one-day, online, event focused on the theme of starvation.

Key topics will include the physiological changes that occur in a patient that is suffering from starvation and how to manage important issues in everyday scenarios, such as:

• Perioperatively
• Patients in need of tube feeding
• Developments in the management of the starving patient.

These online presentations will also provide the opportunity to engage in interactive discussion. Please look out for more information, which will be released in the coming weeks, and we will look forward to you joining us for this virtual event.

Powell-Tuck Prize

As a result of the BAPEN Conference going ahead this year (30th November & 1st December 2021), we are delighted to let you know that the Powell-Tuck prize for the Best Doctor-In-training’s Abstract will be judged again this year, and we are looking forward to reading your abstracts.

Committee vacancies

We are always keen to grow our Committee and are looking for enthusiastic colleagues to join the team. We are indebted to Giles Major for his work with BAPEN Programmes Committee, which oversees the planning of conference, and thank him for his work as he moves abroad. We therefore have a vacancy on the committee and are keen for someone to take this on this important role for the future. Please contact the Committee via the email above if would like to know more about the work, time commitments and roles available.

And finally…

In collaboration with the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG), the new guidelines for organising your percutaneous tube service are almost complete, so do look out for these in due course.

We are also looking to develop research collaborations across the world of clinical nutrition.