Today sees the launch of the National Patient Safety Agency (NPSA) and Patient Safety First week focused on nutrition and hydration: 'A taste of patient safety'.
Poor nutrition and hydration leads to poor health, increased and prolonged hospital admissions, and increased costs to the NHS. The consequences of poor nutrition and hydration are well documented and include increased risk of infection, poor skin integrity and delayed wound healing, decreased muscle strength, depression and, sadly, premature death. Put simply poor nutrition and hydration causes harm.
Nutrition and Hydration week will take place with the support of key partners to reinforce and focus energy, activity and engagement on nutrition and hydration as part of patient safety improvement.
There will be a number of informative and interactive WebEx sessions as will as other activities that you can access on the Patient Safety Website. They also have a number of promotional materials that you can access here.
Closer to home there will also be a number of activities take place around the Trust for example:
Locally Critical Care Outreach will also be out and about proving training on hydration, and fluid balance as week as undertaking audits.
There will also be food tasting session and the Alexandra Hospital.
The Catering staff at the Alexandra are also inviting staff to come and see what it takes to cook 1000 meals a day! You can pop along in the mornings everyday except Wednesday to see how its done by contacting Cath Cox Catering Manager at the Alexandra on ext 42764.
We all know how important Nutrition and Hydration are so please try and get involved in some of the activities locally or nationally via the web site.
Best Wishes
Helen
