Malnutrition in hospital: Still Hungry to be heard

Today, thousands of older people are becoming malnourished when in hospital. This happens because people either don’t get food they can eat or the help they need to eat it.

Through our Hungry to be Heard campaign, Age UK has been working to end this scandal since 2006.

What we are calling for

• All hospital wards to effectively implement our seven steps to end malnutrition
• The Government to require hospitals to publish malnutrition data in a form the public can understand

What you can do

What the campaign has achieved

• Working with Age UK, many hospitals have implemented some or all of the seven steps. Read our report 'Still Hungry to be Heard'.
• With the support of  Abbot Nutrition, our local partners have been able to set up mealtime volunteer programmes in more than a dozen hospitals.
• After being inundated with hundreds of emails from Age UK campaigners, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) carried out unannounced spot checks in a hundred hospitals earlier this year. CQC inspectors looked to see if older people were treated with dignity and if they received the food and the support they needed at mealtimes. The inspections showed that while some hospitals were doing well, a fifth of hospitals were not meeting the minimum standards required by law. Read the CQC report.

You can read the Government's response and the NHS response to our calls.

We want to hear your story

We are looking for older people - or members of their families or carers – to share your experiences with us of problems with appropriate food, or help with eating it, in hospital.  

Tell us your story