President's Message
Dr Nick Thompson, BAPEN President
I’m pleased to share an overview of the fantastic work that BAPEN has achieved throughout the summer months. Alongside the backdrop of a dramatically changing political landscape, the continued hard work of our members, Council and Executive team has been key in building towards some exciting milestones in the closing months of 2024.
Advocating for a focus on malnutrition in the political sphere
Before we look forward, I want to reflect on BAPEN’s continued work to advocate for a focus on disease-related malnutrition in the UK. The new Labour Government has made their ambition to address serious public health challenges clear, but we have work to do to raise awareness of the issue of malnutrition and the importance of nutritional care interventions.
We have written directly to Health Ministers in the form of a joint letter on behalf of BAPEN, the BDA and PINNT, outlining the prevalence of malnutrition across the country and the opportunity to improve care. We presented the case for embedding malnutrition risk screening and nutritional interventions into care pathways – detailing the potential gains for saving NHS resources and improving patient outcomes. It is more important now than ever before to address the malnutrition problem in the UK, tackle the inconsistencies that exist in nutritional care, and improve resources allocated to home artificial nutrition, which allows people to care for themselves at home.
Many of you will be aware of Lord Darzi’s independent review into the performance of the health and care services. I’m proud that BAPEN submitted evidence to the Darzi Review, which was opened for consultation responses in August. Our submission focused on the exacerbated comorbidities and health complications associated with malnutrition; lack of screening for malnutrition; the NHS and economic cost associated with malnutrition and evidence for nutritional intervention and the effectiveness of nutrition support. At the time of writing this column, the report is yet to be published but we all hope that clinical nutrition will feature in it.
HAN Week 2024
BAPEN also celebrated Home Artificial Nutrition (HAN) Week this August, a brilliant opportunity to mark the needs of patients who rely on HAN, but also the skills of the multi-disciplinary clinicians who produce, monitor and deliver nutrition solutions to those in need. As part of our support of the campaign, BAPEN published an interview with Paul Phillips from Wales. Paul’s story of his experiences with parenteral nutrition can be found here on the BAPEN website, and I encourage you all to read and consider how, as clinicians and carers, we can better educate ourselves to improve the care we deliver to our patients.
Upcoming BAPEN Milestones
BAPEN Conference 2024
November is a busy month for BAPEN, and we’re starting it off with BAPEN Annual Conference 2024, on 5-6th November. This will be my first Conference as President, and we have a great line-up of sessions, presentations and posters from across all specialities involved in clinical nutrition. Conference provides a brilliant opportunity for the sharing of best practice between colleagues across the country, as we all work towards a shared goal. Thank you to everyone who has contributed to the Conference so far and I’m thoroughly looking forward to meeting colleagues, both old and new, in Gateshead in a couple of weeks.
BAPEN Conference 2023 saw the highest number of delegate attendance, which I hope we will surpass that this year. There’s still time to register here on the BAPEN website! If you haven’t been to Newcastle-Gateshead before, do come, the Conference venue is a stunning building, the Glasshouse, on the River Tyne and you will get a warm Geordie welcome!
UK Malnutrition Awareness Week 2024
In partnership with the Malnutrition Task Force, BAPEN will once again be co-running UK Malnutrition Awareness Week (UKMAW) 2024, from 11-17th November. Across our digital and social media channels we will be sharing content and education resources for all healthcare professionals, not just those with a focus in nutrition, to advocate for the importance of malnutrition screening and effective nutrition interventions in all care settings. I encourage you to get involved with the campaign – there are multiple opportunities for engagement and the Malnutrition Task Force will also be hosting a drop-in virtual learning event.
Alongside this activity, the Malnutrition Action Group (MAG) is hosting its annual malnutrition and nutritional screening survey throughout November. We invite all healthcare professionals, no matter your speciality, to engage with the survey and help us to understand the current prevalence of malnutrition risk across all health and care settings in the UK. It’s quick and straight-forward to submit data using ‘MUST’, and more information on how to contribute can be found on our website. Crucially, to advocate for clinical nutrition we rely on data to highlight the scale of the issue, so your contributions are of great value to BAPEN and your patients!
Finally, an update on my own fundraising efforts
On a personal note, I have just completed the second leg of my fundraising walk of the Via Francigena, from Canterbury to Rome. We returned from Italy after crossing the alps last month and you can see our progress on a dedicated Instagram page (@.2000k.to.rome). If you are able, you can help us to continue raising money for two outstanding charities - PINNT, and clinical nutrition research at Newcastle Hospitals & University. Please visit our JustGiving page for more information on how to sponsor the team: https://justgiving.com/team/2000k-to-rome. We’ve already raised over £7,500, which is brilliant, and a huge thank you to all those who have already donated.
Best wishes,
Nick
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