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Health and Social Care Bill

Precisely. My hon. Friend makes a powerful point, again from her own experience. That was discussed at some length with the Minister in Committee. Although there was an absence of common cause on the malnutrition issue, we recognised, particularly in the health care setting, where there are some statistics one can get hold of, that it has been extraordinarily difficult to get the undernutrition, malnutrition, or inappropriate nutrition figures out of the social care settings, whether they are local authority, public sector or indeed private sector. Almost everyone knows that some people will arrive, whether it is into a social care setting or into a hospital setting, malnourished. It could be part of their condition. At the same time, the issue has been the rise in malnutrition among those who leave hospital. The thing about social care homes is that we do not have the same statistics— naturally, given that we are often dealing with the end of life—on people leaving to measure whether greater malnourishment has taken place. The weighing and measuring issues, which are addressed in the Bill, are important. Most of us remember from our childhoods that weighing and measuring were a natural first step in almost all interactions with the health or care services, not least in relation to health visitors. That is relevant to an earlier intervention on health and pregnancy. Such issues are vital to the future health of the people of our nation.