§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the annual cost of under-nutrition to the NHS. [75701]
§ Ms Blears[holding answer 22 October 2002]: The number of finished consultant episodes (FCEs) of in-patient care in national health service hospitals in England in 2000–01 for malnutrition was 321. This figure does not represent the number of patients as a person may have more than one FCE in the year. This is the final figure.
This information is extracted from hospital episode statistics (HES) system which contains details of patients admitted to and treated in NHS hospitals in England. HES does not hold data on cost of treatment for malnutrition.