BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOR PARENTERAL AND ENTERAL NUTRITION'S REPORT ON COMBATING MALNUTRITION

That this House welcomes the report Combating Malnutrition by the Advisory Group on Malnutrition led by British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition; thanks the Advisory Group's members for giving up their time to identify the steps which can be taken by the Government and by all those with caring responsibilities to address the condition; expresses concern over the Advisory Group's finding that three million people are malnourished in the UK at any one time and that the total costs to the public purse of disease-related malnutrition are in excess of £13 billion per annum; notes the findings of the Advisory Group that malnutrition is closely linked to socio-economic factors such as deprivation and that as a result the burden of malnutrition exacerbates health inequalities; endorses the Advisory Group's recommendation for joined-up action by the Government, the NHS, the voluntary sector and other parties to work together to tackle malnutrition; calls on the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) to consider the case for including malnutrition in the Quality and Outcomes Framework of the General Medical Services contract from 2010-11; and further calls on the Government to ensure that as many of the Advisory Group's recommendations are implemented in full and as soon as possible, including the requirement to undertake nutritional screening in line with the recommendations already made by NICE.