James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail)
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1029. To ask the Minister for Health his views on the Health Information Quality Authority report of the review of nutrition and hydration care in public acute hospitals; the actions he will take to ensure nutritional risk screening is carried out for every patient within 24 hours of admission; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24445/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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One of our commitments in the Programme for Government is to improve the quality of food in our hospitals. I welcome the publication last May of the HIQA Report of the review of nutrition and hydration care in public acute hospitals. The report has been designed to present the findings so that hospitals can share identified areas of good practice and develop opportunities for improvement in relation to nutrition and hydration for patients in hospital.

I am pleased to see that during this review HIQA found that, for the most part, our hospitals are already doing a good job in relation to hospital food, with 86% of patients satisfied with the food served to them in hospitals. HIQA also found that the majority of patients spoke positively about the quality and taste of the food served to them in hospitals and that patients who required assistance at mealtimes were offered that assistance in a prompt manner. However, we know that there are some people arriving into hospitals already suffering from malnutrition and others who struggle to maintain a good level of nutrition so hospitals need to be aware of those people and ensure that all patients are screened on admission for risk of malnutrition and given the appropriate care and monitoring.

While I am aware that recently published follow up HIQA unannounced inspections in a number of hospitals identified a number of opportunities for improvement in the hospitals, it also found many areas of practice that worked well and that were in line with the National Standards for Safer Better Healthcare. In particular, I welcome the fact that each of the hospitals inspected has a nutrition steering committee and that these committees were seen to be having an important role in improving the quality of nutrition in the hospitals.

I expect that all hospitals will continue to build on their areas of good practice and continue to develop the opportunities for improvement in relation to nutrition and hydration for patients in their hospital, including implementing a nutritional screening programme to identify patients at risk of malnutrition. Work on the development of a clinical guideline on the Prevention and Treatment of Undernutrition in the Acute Care Setting, supported by the Health and Wellbeing Division in the HSE, is due to commence shortly.

I understand that the HSE will ensure that the findings of the HIQA review and inspections will be used by hospitals to further improve performance in this area, to share the learning from those hospitals that are already implementing best practice in this area and provide support to those who need to raise their standards further.