About BANS
The British Artificial Nutrition Survey (BANS) was established in 1996 and consolidated work previously undertaken by the Salford HPN register and the Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition Group (PEN Group) Home Enteral Tube Feeding (HETF) register. The BANS Committee, which reflects the multidisciplinary nature of BAPEN, publishes reports that can be accessed on the BAPEN website. BANS relies on the voluntary contributions of health care professionals to report data on adults and children receiving nutrition support including enteral tube feeding and parenteral nutrition.
Overall Aim of BANS:
To audit nutrition support modalities across the United Kingdom and to publish national and regional findings on an annual basis and provide ad hoc reports as required by interested parties.
Specific Objectives:
- To monitor at national and regional level the growth of artificial nutrition support in hospitals and the community
- To track treatment outcomes
- To establish the structure of artificial nutrition support services (ANS) in the UK
- To identify problems associated with the use/lack of ANS
- To assess standards of care
- To publish an annual report that brings these findings into the public domain
- To review practice against accepted guidelines.
BANS has successfully reported on trends of ANS over the years with anonymised data from nutrition companies helping to validate findings. However, improvements in local electronic recording of nutrition support has made it challenging for clinical services to continue reporting. This has led us to close the eBANS databases for enteral and parenteral nutrition, and embrace new approaches and collaborations. Prevalence surveys and collaborations with other organisations will help with data collection on enteral feeding. We will be looking to help describe current practice, treatment outcomes, regional services and equality of care. BANS data demonstrating inequity of access to home parenteral nutrition (HPN) services in England were instrumental in the development of the Strategic Framework for Intestinal Failure and Home Parenteral Nutrition Services for Adults in England.
BANS is a Standing Committee of BAPEN and is registered with the Data Protection Act through the Charity.
Closure of the eBANS database for enteral nutrition
A difficult but pragmatic decision was made by the BANS committee and BAPEN executive members to close the eBANS database in April 2020. This follows an ongoing decline in submission of eBANS data for enteral nutrition. Feedback from the 2019 eBANS survey of BAPEN membership and dietitians working with home enteral nutrition (HEN) clients indicated that whilst there was significant desire for national HEN data collection there was a real concern around capacity to submit such data to a national database.
The BANS committee is currently working on other routes to collect national HEN data and would welcome your ideas or thoughts on this and please contact us via bapen@bapen.org.uk This work has been somewhat curtailed due to the current COVID-19 pandemic but please be assured we will notify you of further developments as they occur.
Thank you to all who have contributed over the years to enteral nutrition eBANS and to the previous BANS committee members who worked so hard to develop and report on the data.
BANS Reports
The BANS Committee
BANS committee members have different areas of interest and responsibility.
BANS committee members who are responsible for home enteral feeding in adults and children are:
- Emily Walters, BANS Co-Chair (HEF), Research Dietitian
- Nicola Cunningham, Dietitian, PENG
- Karen Darroch, Home enteral feeding Dietitian, Scotland
BANS committee members who are responsible for the Intestinal Failure Registry (Adults) are:
- Sarah-Jane Nelson (Hughes), BANS Co-Chair (PN), Dietitian, Northern Ireland
- Venetia Simchowitz, Pharmacist, BPNG
- Phil Scott-Townsend, Database developer, Wild Pressed Computing/Streets Heaver
- Simon Lal, Gastroenterologist, BAPEN Medical
BANS committee members who are responsible for the Intestinal Failure Registry (Children) are:
- Sarah-Jane Nelson (Hughes), BANS Co-Chair (PN), Dietitian, Northern Ireland
- Anthony Wiskin, Consultant Paediatrician, BSPGHAN
- Phil Scott-Townsend, Database developer, Wild Pressed Computing/Streets Heaver
Trevor Smith, past BANS Committee Chair and current BAPEN President talks about the work of this important multi-disciplinary Committee, the benefits of BANS to healthcare professionals and the work that is underway to ensure BANS is fit for purpose going forward. Hear what he has to say and how you can get involved with BANS.
