A positive approach to nutrition as treatment : report of a working party chaired by Professor J. E. Lennard-Jones on the role of enteral and parenteral feeding in hospital and at home

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Many people with severe illness are at risk from an unrecognised complication - malnutrition, which can seriously delay the recovery from medical and surgical disorders, and can even be life-threatening. Evidence in this report shows the clinical and financial benefits which can result from better diagnosis and treatment of malnutrition. It also explains why arrangements for coping with clinical malnutrition in the UK are unsatisfactory. The recommendations for improved care in this report concern the recognition of malnutrition at an early stage and the organisation of nutritional treatment in the most cost effective manner. It also suggests that only a proportion of those who need nutritional support receive it, and that during prolonged hospital stay malnutrition often becomes worse or develops for the first time. Only when the assessment of every patient's nutritional status has become a routine will the full benefits of nutritional treatment be realised.

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