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Older people have told nurses and NHS chief executives how it feels to be ignored and go hungry in hospital at a specially organised event on Friday 11 May.  

60 people shared their views including Maria Nash, from Barnet, a disabled 60 year-old women who last year was told a hospital couldn’t provide food to meet her specialist dietary requirements because of budget cuts.  Subsequently she had to become an outpatient and get to and from hospital every day. 

She said: “The hospital told me my dietary requirements would be catered for but when lunchtime came I was left hungry and helpless. NHS boards need to meaningfully involve patients in developing strategies for providing food to every patient.”  

Mala Karasu, Matron Elderly Care, St Guys and St Thomas’s NHS Foundation Trust, said about the conference: “This experience has been so useful. This falls inline with what the trust is working on which is a good nutrition strategy for older people.”  

The event, held at Cavendish Square London, is part of our campaign ‘Hungry to be Heard’ which aims to end the scandal that six out of ten older patients being malnourished in hospital. Ignoring this problem is a costly mistake – NICE calculate that the NHS would save £13.3 million if it implemented guidelines to tackle malnutrition. The total cost of malnutrition in the UK has been reported to be £7.3 billion a year.   

A key recommendation of Age Concern’s campaign is that hospital staff listen to older people. The results of this conference will be used to produce a national report on how older people and their relatives think the NHS should tackle malnutrition in hospital.    

Notes to Editors

For attached photo - caption: ‘Older people tell a matron how to stop patients starving in hospital.’

- Age Concern launched its Hungry to be Heard campaign August 2006 and has been inundated with heartbreaking stories of older patients being denied basic care and help with food. The charity is calling on all hospitals to adopt seven steps to end this scandal:

1. Hospital staff must listen to older people, and their relatives and carers
2. All ward staff must become ‘food aware’
3. Hospital staff must follow their own professional codes and guidance from other bodies
4. Older people must be assessed for the signs or danger of malnourishment on admission and at regular intervals during their stay
5. Introduce ‘protected mealtimes’
6. Implement a ‘red tray system’ and ensure that it works in practice
7. Use volunteers where appropriate 

-          The event was organised by Age Concern England and Age Concern London.
-          For more case studies or photographs contact Mel Beardon at Age Concern England on 020 8765 7511.

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