Issue - meetings

A presentation on nutrition and hydration in over 65s was given by the Greater Manchester Nutrition and Hydration Oldham Programme Manager.

The Board was informed that malnutrition affected over 1M people in UK. One third of those admitted to hospital, presented this condition. It was explained that malnutrition was not a natural part of ageing and the cost to the NHS was superior to obesity. Malnourished people visited their GP twice as often as those who were well nourished and they had three times many hospital admissions. 

The GM model to tackle malnutrition mirrored the Salford model; this was based on five principles: raising awareness, working together, identify malnutrition, personalised care, support and treatment and monitoring and evaluating. Through this model, Salford had saved £300,000 on NHS prescribing and had seen a reduction in hospital admissions.

The two year funded pilot project looked at replicating Salford model in five sites: Oldham, Bury, Bolton, Rochdale and Stockport. Each area had a Public Health lead and a local Age UK partner. The aim was to raise awareness. Training would be offered to different organisation and an e-learning tool would be developed.

It was estimated that in Oldham there were 36,000 people over 65s and about 3,400 of these were at risk of malnutrition. Implementing this model could save £600,000 in prescribing costs per year.

The Board was presented with two of the resources utilised to identify malnutrition: the paperweight hand band tool which was a non-intrusive, non-clinical assessment tool and the one to one “Are You Eating Enough” booklet.

The programme had been in place for six months. So far 876 people had been reached. 98 people had been assessed and two people were found to be at risk. 41 people had been trained. The programme would be evaluated by Manchester University.

Members sought and received clarification / commented on the following points:

-       Health Improvement, Thriving Communities and Make Every Contact Count. This new model would link with these work streams.

-       Useful tool for Police Community Support Officers;

-       How this model could be linked to the Transformation Programme;

-       Food as enabler to fight social isolation, links to Ambition for Aging;

-       MioCare and DomiCare members of staff could be trained on this model;

-       Resources and BMI communities; request for one, inclusive booklet;

-       Care at Home delivered by the independent sector – the Provider Forum would be another opportunity for delivering the training on the new model.

-       To utilise a video clip to divulge the training – Age UK Salford added a video on their web-site.

RESOLVED that the Board recognise the work of the programme and support the efforts to raise awareness of the issue and to help embed the intervention into everyday interactions of staff and carers with people aged 65 and over who may be at risk of malnutrition and hydration.