www.european-nutrition.org
BAPEN Publishes New Cost of Malnutrition & Recommendations for Action
10 February 2009
A new BAPEN report, Combating Malnutrition: Recommendations for Action, is the culmination of work undertaken by a group of experts in malnutrition, led by BAPEN. Launched in Parliament on 10 February 2009, it sets out how the vast majority of those at risk of the condition are living in the community and not in care homes and hospitals, where the focus of Government action has been to date. It also sets out how the disproportionate burden of malnutrition in deprived areas exacerbates health inequalities. The report puts forward 25 actions that the Government needs to lead in order to reduce both the cost of the condition to the taxpayer, and the number of those at risk.
Commenting, Professor Marinos Elia, Chair of the Advisory Group on Malnutrition which worked on the report, and immediate past Chair of BAPEN, said: The evidence is clear and the time is right. Improving the nutritional status of all in the community as well as in hospital and care influences health outcomes and quality of life. The policy and regulation frameworks are in place into which many measures to combat malnutrition can be easily slotted. Government and the NHS together with the social care, housing and community sectors must now press forward with embedding nutritional care and treatment into daily practice to combat malnutrition where it starts in the community.
