Hundreds of thousands of patients admitted to NHS hospitals lose weight when they enter hospital, slowing down recovery, increasing the risk of infections and complications, and increasing the risk that they will die from their condition, the Annual Scientific Meeting of the British Society of Gastroenterology (BSG) was told recently.
Dr Jones called on doctors and nurses to “think nutrition” – to look at patients and to weigh them. However, he also warned that measures recently recommended by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence to address the NHS’s inadequate approach to patient nutrition were under threat from the funding crisis currently afflicting the NHS.
