Information for Health Care Professionals
Training requests
We offer training sessions on malnutrition and hydration support to any local health and social care professionals, domiciliary care providers, charity groups and patients groups upon request. Please email: food.first@nhs.net.
Prescription Oral Nutritional Supplements for Adults:
Oral Nutritional Supplements (ONS) can be a short term option for people who meet the Advisory Committee for Borderline Substances (ACBS) criteria and are unable to meet their nutritional needs using food alone. We encourage anyone with concerns about malnutrition or their nutritional intake to contact their GP or another healthcare professional involved in their care.
Anyone issued with ONS should have been screened using a validated nutrition screening tool such as: Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool ‘MUST’5 or the Patients Association Nutrition Checklist and identified at high nutritional risk. We usually recommend food based approaches (where appropriate) to be implemented for at least 4 weeks before considering prescription options- see the Food First Resources page. Please note that a nutrition goal should be agreed with any prescription of ONS and monitored with an expected stop date (usually 12 weeks of first issue).
Referrals
The Food First Team accepts direct referrals from care homes for older people. If you are a local healthcare professional and would like to refer someone who does not live in a care home please email ccs.beds.nutrition@nhs.net for the current referral form. We are unable to accept self-referrals at this time.