§ Dr. FoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment has been made of the proportion of patients who are undernourished in the NHS. [24595]
§ Yvette CooperFor the wider community, Government surveys such as the National Diet and Nutrition Surveys and the Health Survey for England provide data on the prevalence of over and under nutrition for children and adults and by age and region.
Statistics are available for the number of episodes of hospital in-patient care with a primary diagnosis relating to malnutrition. The incidence of reported cases of malnutrition is rare (there were a total of 252 cases in 2000–01) but tends to increase with age.
In the NHS Plan, we made a commitment to reduce under-nutrition by developing a hospital nutrition policy to improve the outcome of care of patients by 2004. A number of strategies are in place to manage, monitor and screen patients for under-nutrition in hospitals, residential care and the wider community. Nutritional screening is recommended for the care of specific groups, such as those outlined in the "National Service Framework for Older People".