Written question asked by Paul Flynn (Labour) on Wednesday, 12 April 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 18 April 2006. It was answered by Liam Byrne (Labour) on Monday, 24 April 2006 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Malnutrition

Question: (2) which health and social care workers have responsibility for identifying and implementing action to combat malnutrition in people over the age of 65 (a) in primary care, (b) in care homes, (c) who are hospital in-patients and (d) who are hospital out-patients; and what action she is taking to implement this policy.

Answer: The primary responsibility for monitoring the health of individuals, including their nutritional status, rests with clinicians.I refer my hon. Friend to the reply I gave on 28 June 2005, Official Report, column 1523W, which stated that, it is the responsibility of the appropriate regulatory bodies that set standards for health and social care education and training to determine how much knowledge registrants require of specific health and social care issues such as nutrition and malnutrition.The General Medical Council for example, requires that all pre-registration house officers must demonstrate competence across a range of factors, including nutrition in considering treatment options they discuss with patients. The Nursing and Midwifery Council also stress the need for specialist community public health nurses to understand, among other things, the importance of nutrition.The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence and the National Collaborating Centre for Acute Care published a clinical guideline on 21 February 2006 to help the national health service identify patients, who are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 445 c960W;445 c960W; 64286
Session: 2005-06
Related items: Nutrition (Staff Training)
Tuesday, 28 June 2005
Written questions
House of Commons
Subjects: Older people Nutrition Malnutrition
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk