Nurses express concerns over treatment of malnourished patients

More people may be tempted to seek out private medical cover following the results of a new survey from Age UK.

According to a poll by the charity, nearly a third (29.4 per cent) of NHS nurses are not confident that it would be noticed if a relative of theirs was malnourished when entering hospital.

The organisation says the results add to fears that older people are not being properly taken care off in NHS hospitals.

According to its research, carried out by ICM, less than half of nurses think their hospital screens older in-patients often enough while 71 per cent of nurses claim there are barriers to screening such as lack of time, other priorities and training.

Michelle Mitchell, charity director at Age UK, said: "It's extremely worrying that nurses still don't feel confident that a fundamental problem such as malnourishment will be picked up when an older person enters hospital.

"While recognition of the issue is high, not enough is being done to ensure that words are transferring into action on the wards."

In 2007, the latest year for which figures are available, 239 patients died of malnutrition in British hospitals.

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