UNIVERSITY Hospital Limerick (UHL) has received a clean bill of health for screening its patients for malnutrition.
And the hospital is rolling out a programme of protected meal times to ensure patients will be left in peace to eat their meals without intrusion from visitors or other interruptions.
This follows a report from health watch-dog, HIQA which found that malnutrition affects more than one in four patients admitted to hospital. Despite this, 21 per cent of public hospitals don’t have a screening system in place to detect the risk of malnutrition.
The annual healthcare costs associated with disease-related malnutrition have been estimated at €1.5 billion.
The HIQA report was compiled from information on 42 hospitals, unannounced inspections at 13 of those hospitals, interviews with 579 patients and 363 staff and a review of 322 patient healthcare records.
“While many hospitals demonstrated a commitment to promoting improvements in nutrition and hydration, there was a wide variation in findings,” the report stated.
A spokesman for UHL confirmed that all patients are screened within 24 hours of admission to identify those at risk of malnutrition. The screening tool used is known as MUST (malnutrition universal screening tool).
“UL Hospitals Group established a nutrition steering committee in 2014. In December 2015, the committee undertook a patient satisfaction survey which found that 81 per cent were happy with the meals provided and 91.5 per cent said they always received assistance with meals, if required.
“A new policy around protected mealtimes for patients will also be rolled out over the coming months”, the spokesman added.
