Elderly hungry on wards - charity

A survey of 110 NHS trusts by Age Concern found 43% had still not introduced protected mealtimes, where non-urgent ward activities stop in favour of focusing on feeding patients.

The charity has heard examples where patients are taken to the toilet during mealtimes or where routine examinations are conducted, meaning people miss out on eating.

Its research also found that one in three NHS Trusts in England have not yet introduced a red tray system, where meal trays are colour-coded to show a patient needs help with eating.

The Government has not specifically told NHS trusts they must introduce protected mealtimes or red tray systems.

The Healthcare Commission measures quality standards relating to nutrition but Age Concern does not believe these goes far enough.

It wants the new health and social care regulator, the Care Quality Commission, which comes into force in April, to make nutrition a top priority for the NHS.

Studies have shown that six out of 10 older people are at risk of becoming malnourished or seeing their situation get worse in hospital.

In 2007, the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) received more than 29,000 reports of incidents relating to patient nutrition.

These ranged from badly fitted feeding tubes and frail patients who could not reach their meals to people with swallowing problems given incorrect food and deaths where poor nutrition was a factor.