The NHS Quality Improvement Scotland (QIS) review of the performance of the 14 boards against standards drawn up in 2003 for food, fluid and nutritional care finds too little progress is being made too slowly.
The NHS Quality Improvement Scotland had issued advice including recommendations that patients should be weighed, measured and interviewed about their food preferences within 24 hours of being admitted following concerns about the number of undernourished people going into the hospitals.The review found that while most boards had a plan for screening programs they were not implementing it properly. The report shows that while health boards are getting better at identifying patients who are malnourished they need to do more to ensure that they were treated.
Jan Warner, NHS QIS director, has called for more teams of specialist doctors, dieticians, pharmacists and nurses to provide the nutritional expertise needed to patients.
