Hospital nutrition heads for YouTube

The three clips have been produced with the help and support of Steve Mangan, best known for his role as 'Dr Guy' in TV sitcom, The Green Wing, and fellow actors Leila Hoffman, Daphne Alexander and Colin Duvall. In one of the clips, Steve Mangan plays a doctor, who tries unsuccessfully to disrupt an older person's mealtime. The comical sketches use light humour to focus on three of the charity's Hungry to be Heard seven steps to stamp out the malnutrition of older people on hospital wards. Created as an awareness raising tool for nurses, doctors, other health professionals, and the wider public, the clips use the themes of protected mealtimes, red-tray systems and mealtime volunteers to show how good nutrition can aid an older patient's recovery while in hospital. Through this new initiative, the charity hopes that more hospitals will 'protect' older people's mealtimes from non-urgent activity, such as ward rounds and routine tests, so patients are free to eat without interruptions. It also calls for red tray systems to be introduced to help identify those who need assistance at mealtimes and to use volunteers where appropriate to help patients to eat. Patrick South, Head of Public Affairs of Age Concern, said: "These unique video clips illustrate simple solutions that can be implemented by nurses on a local level to help solve a national problem. For older people, missed meals in hospital can be as big a risk as missing medication. Every hospital needs to make sure staff in every ward are doing all they can, so that older people don't go hungry." Steve Mangan, aka Dr Guy of TV sitcom, The Green Wing, said: "I wanted to be part of this Age Concern campaign because in about thirty year's time, I plan to be old. If I end up in hospital and I don't get to eat properly, I'm not going to be happy!" To take a look at the clips click here.