The three leading organisations behind the Week - Patient Safety First (PSF), Hospital Caterers Association (HCA) and National Association of Care Catering (NACC) – put out the challenge to everyone involved in nutritional care in health and social care settings to use the week as a platform to demonstrate and share nutrition and hydration best practice.
The focus of the week-long promotion was Worldwide Afternoon Tea on March 19, with thousands of social and health care providers serving afternoon teas or staging tea parties across the UK and around the world.
Andy Jones, HCA chairman, said: “The level of support for the week has been phenomenal. We have been overwhelmed by the way in which hospital and care caterers as well as all the support staff in health and social care settings have truly embraced the concept of Afternoon Tea and integrated it into the promotion of the week’s aims.
“The strength of commitment to delivering good hydration and nutritional care demonstrated throughout the UK and the world last week, should make us all proud.
“It should also reassure patients, care home residents and their relatives of the exceptional lengths and high standards to which our teams strive every single day”.
Worldwide Afternoon Tea Day was officially launched at St Bart’s Hospital on March 19th, where celebrity chef Cyrus Todiwala lent his support. The ‘buzz’ around the event created a lot of interest, with organisers reporting that the Twitter reach was 3 million.
Todiwala said: “If Pervin [his wife] or I were to be laid up in hospital for whatever reason, the last thing we'd want is bland, unappetising and typical hospital food. It would be great to be fed good, wholesome, tasty, nutritious and healthy food cooked with care and attention.
“That is half the job done and arguably three quarters of the recovery process. This is simply what Nutrition & Hydration Week is trying to highlight and did so most successfully – I was proud to have played my small role in it.”
The campaign set out to help health and care professionals to prevent under-nutrition and dehydration in hospital patients, care home residents and social care service users.
The aim was also to ensure that any improvement in awareness becomes a long-term legacy of change.
The scale of activity was such that tea parties arranged in India, Canada and Australia.