Doctors and medical staff need more education on nutrition if they are to effectively readdress priorities in hospitals, it emerged last week.

A Westminster Food & Nutrition Forum seminar on food in hospitals and care settings saw healthcare professionals from across the UK come together last Wednesday to get to grips with the issue.

Lord Earl Howe, shadow minister for health, insisted that for a healthcare system that “professes to be world class”, it is “unacceptable to have poor food”.

He said: “There is hard evidence for malnutrition in hospitals. There are wards in hospitals where the food is inaccessible, inadequate, unappetising and unsuitable.”

A study of 11,000 patients for National Screening Week 2007 showed that 28 per cent of all admissions showed signs of malnutrition.

Those admitted from an institution, such as another hospital or care home, were found to be more likely to be malnourished than those admitted from home, while more patients were found to be discharged in a malnourished state than those admitted.

The survey will be repeated from July 1-3 this year.

Richard Wilson, director of nutrition and dietetics at King’s College Hospital and chair of the awareness delivery sub-group of the Nutrition Action Plan, spoke of the importance of raising awareness of nutrition in the care setting.

He said: “We have to ask patients what they think of the food, whether they think they have enough choice and whether they get enough assistance to help them eat their meal.

“The Nutrition Action Plan is building on what has gone before, using resources from the Better Hospital Food Project to improve the sourcing of ingredients and the quality of the food, as well as protected mealtimes.”

Key elements of the plan include pushing towards national occupational standards for nutritional care and to capitalising on NHS resources, such as the NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement.

The Royal Brompton Hospital in London was singled out as a model example for providing fresh, organic and, where possible, locally sourced food for its patients.

Mike Duckett, catering manager at the Royal Brompton, said: “The problem is that, in general, we don’t tend to take food seriously in hospitals and we don’t look at what patients wants, which are two key things.

“We believe our patients deserve good, nutritious food to make their stay as pleasant as possible, and to aid their recovery. The food is cooked just 20 minutes before the patient wants it because that is what they would expect at home, and our kitchen is run like a hotel kitchen. We purchase ingredients from local suppliers, with a focus on British, local and seasonal food.”