Nutritional screening
Health Boards should ensure that all patients have their nutritional status screened on admission to a ward using a recognised nutritional screening tool.
- The Scottish Government's response acknowledged criticisms of nutritional assessment and recording, and outlined measures to improve nutritional screening. NHS boards are expected to use recognised nutritional screening tools (such as MUST — Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool) on admission.
- The Food in Hospitals standards and the Health and Social Care Standards require that patients' nutritional needs are assessed on admission and regularly reviewed (Health and Social Care Standards (https://www.gov.scot/publications/health-social-care-standards-support-life/)).
- Healthcare Improvement Scotland includes nutrition and hydration assessment in its inspection framework.
How was this evidence gathered?
Response
Accepted
Response
AcceptedSection 4.1 of the Scottish Government's response acknowledges the report's criticisms of specific elements of nursing care, including the unsatisfactory assessment and recording of patients' nutritional status. The government unreservedly accepts in full the report's recommendations relating to nursing care and recognises the identified system and individual failures. It expresses high confidence in the NHS nursing workforce and highlights support initiatives for nursing introduced in recent years, which aim to uphold high standards of care.
Published Evidence
Published assessments of progress from inspectorates, select committees, official progress reports, and other sources. Source type badge indicates whether each assessment is independent or government self-reported.
Excellence in Care CAIR Dashboard includes nutritional screening measures. National Food Fluid and Nutritional Care Standards published by HIS.
View detailed findings
Nutritional screening on admission is monitored through the CAIR Dashboard as part of fundamentals of care.