Ministers criticised over patient nutrition

MINISTERS have been accused of "sitting on their hands" while thousands of patients leave hospital malnourished.

A report handed to Ministers last summer with a string of recommendations on how to tackle problems has still not been published, prompting fierce criticism from the Tories.

They claim simple action – such as spending extra time with patients struggling to eat – could improve the situation.

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Patients left hospital with malnutrition on more than 185,000 occasions last year according to official figures.

Shadow Health Minister Stephen O'Brien said: "The Government is giving us no indication why they're not publishing this. We know it says something that could help us tackling an avoidable problem."

Last year, the Yorkshire

Post revealed how more than 2,300 people in English hospitals had died from malnutrition over a decade – with 242 in 2007 alone.

Official figures show 185,446 patients were discharged from hospital with malnourishment in 2008/09 - 110,015 more than in 1997/98 when Labour came to power, although screening has intensified over the past decade.

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Health Minister Phil Hope has revealed the nutrition report contains 21 recommendations and covers "various aspects of nutrition, some aimed at Government and some at organisations outside Government".

A Department of Health spokesman said: "It is misleading to suggest that an increase in patients being discharged from hospital with malnutrition is due to poor care or the quality of food in hospitals. Many patients who are admitted to hospital are already malnourished."