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<p>The Government has made no such assessment.</p><p>The NHS England guidance ‘Commissioning
Excellent Nutrition and Hydration (2015-2018)’ supports commissioners to develop strategies
and address issues related to improvements in delivery and commissioning of nutrition
and hydration needs in acute services and the community. The guidance has been developed
in conjunction with key partners including the British Dietetic Association and the
British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition.</p><p>In addition, the National
Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is responsible for publishing clinical
guidelines for the National Health Service. ‘Nutrition support for adults: oral feeding,
enteral tube feeding and parenteral nutrition’ (NICE Clinical Guideline 32) provides
advice to the NHS to help identify patients who are malnourished or at risk of malnutrition
and was most recently reviewed by NICE in July 2017. Further information is available
at the following link:</p><p><a href="https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs24" target="_blank">https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/qs24</a></p><p>Building
on this guidance, further steps have been taken to support screening and recording
of malnutrition in hospitals and other healthcare settings.</p><p>A 'Malnutrition
Universal Screening Tool' ('MUST') has been developed by the Malnutrition Advisory
Group. The tool is supported by governmental and non-governmental organisations, such
as the Royal College of Nursing, and is the most commonly used screening tool in the
United Kingdom. Further information is available at the following link:</p><p><a href="http://www.malnutritionselfscreening.org/self-screening.html"
target="_blank">http://www.malnutritionselfscreening.org/self-screening.html</a></p><p>The
Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014 set out the
fundamental standards of care, which must be met by all providers of health and adult
social care. Regulation 14 of that Act relates specifically to meeting nutritional
and hydration needs. During inspections of health and adult social care services,
the Care Quality Commission (CQC) asks five key questions of all care services: are
they safe, are they effective, are they caring, are they responsive to people’s needs
and are they well-led?</p><p>Under the Effective key question, the CQC seeks to understand
how services support people to ensure that they eat and drink enough to maintain a
balanced diet. If a malnourished patient presents at hospital, the CQC would expect
a hospital trust to record it as a primary or secondary diagnosis in the Hospital
Episode Statistics database and a safeguarding alert to be made, as well as a referral
to a dietician.</p><p><br></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p>
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