The danger of litigation owing to a nutritionally poor diet in hospital is growing, warned senior clinician Professor Simon Allison, head of clinical nutrition at the Queen's Medical Centre in Nottingham.
Allison said that a recent study into the nutritional status of 500 patients being admitted to hospitals in Scotland had revealed that 200 were undernourished.
He said that if a patient were admitted with pneumonia and was not prescribed antibiotics, it would be a case of negligence. It was conceivable that the same might apply if poor nutrition were not treated.
He said that the Scottish study had also revealed that 77% of patients suffered weight loss during their stay in hospital.
There were a number of reasons why patients would not eat, Allison said, including their illness and the medicine they were prescribed. He stressed the need for medical staff to talk to hospital caterers to help overcome cases where patients found it difficult to eat or had lost their appetite.
"In the future," he said, "it is going to happen that the failure to spot and treat a nutritional problem will become a case of negligence."
So what comes next?
The Grossman six-point plan
Loyd Grossman, chairman of the Better Food Panel, said that a great deal of progress had been made over the past two years, but it was time to build on this, particularly in relation to:
* The availability of hot and cold drinks around the clock
* Improving records about what patients have eaten, and to review their nutritional needs
* Improving non-food aspects of the meal experience, providing a more homely and convivial environment for eating
* The need to work more closely with commercial organisations to improve service standards
* Better use of information technology to respond to patient needs more quickly
* More wide-ranging refreshment facilities, especially "after hours".