Clause 16
Health and Social Care Bill
6:30 pm
Greg Mulholland (Shadow Minister, Health; Leeds North West, Liberal Democrat)
We now come to the vital subject of nutrition, which remains a huge issue in hospitals and care homes. The latest figures from the annual survey of the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, conducted in September 2007, state that 28 per cent. of people in hospitals and care homes are at risk of malnutrition. That is more than one in four people, which we cannot accept, especially as the figures show big increases with age.
The focus in the last 18 months to two years has been on the need for better nutrition in schools. The Government have taken that point on board and are doing something to address it, but the same focus is needed on nutrition in care homes and hospitals.
My hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam (Mr. Burstow) introduced a very good ten-minute Bill on nutrition in care homes two years ago and put the case strongly, but since then, as the CSCI figures for 2006-07 show, 23 per cent. of people in care homes that provide nursing and 21 per cent. in other care homes were in places that failed to meet the minimum nutritional standards.
We are not talking about meeting an adequate level of nutrition; the minimum nutrition standard says little about what sort of nutrition people in care homes should have, which is why it is scarcely more than a piece of paper. More than one in five people in care homes today still do not receive the minimum nutrition that the Government laid down, which is a matter of great concern. In October, the Government published the nutrition action plan and although I shall be interested to hear further details about it, things do not appear to be getting much better.
People in hospitals are still at risk of malnutrition, which in Britain today is simply unacceptable. The Age Concern report, “Hungry to be Heard”, published in 2006, said that six in 10 older people in hospital are at risk of becoming malnourished, or of their condition becoming worse. As we know, age and the conditions associated with age are a huge problem, meaning that this group remains very significant, though there are of course other vulnerable people, including the mentally ill and vulnerable children.
There is a huge associated cost, as the Government are well aware. BAPEN estimated in 2005 that it costs the taxpayer £2.6 billion to deal with the malnutrition caused in care homes alone. Surely the Bill is an opportunity to address some of the issues in terms of frameworks, so it makes sense to have nutrition specifically mentioned in the measure, and in terms of amendment No. 165, it makes absolute sense. We have talked about making
“provision in relation to nutritional standards in relation to regulated activities”,
which is important. Amendment No. 165 goes on to talk about
“provision for the prevention and management of malnutrition”.
No doubt the hon. Member for Eddisbury will go into more detail about that. We would be minded to support that proposal, and I would like to know his thoughts on amendment No. 151. The Minister acknowledges that more needs to be done to address the issue of inadequate nutrition and the possibility of malnutrition both in care homes and in hospitals. If this is not the place to do something about it, what is, and when will it happen?