Our Services A - Z - Nutrition and dietetics

Our dietitians work in many of the specialist areas across the hospitals as part of a multidisciplinary team (MDT). This is to ensure the care that you receive is focused on your individual needs.

We have very experienced staff and offer a wide range of specialised dietetic input in the following areas:

• Critical Care
• Elderly care
• Orthopaedics
• Stroke
• Gastroenterology
• Nutrition support
• Oncology
• General surgery
• Spinal injuries

If your doctor or nurse thinks you would benefit from seeing a dietitian, they will refer you directly to the service. The service is available between 8am to 4.30pm Monday to Friday. Inpatient referrals are acted on within 48 working hours of receipt or sooner.

The hospital uses the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) to identify those who are malnourished or at risk of malnourishment and put a treatment plan in place to improve this. This can trigger a referral to a dietitian but you may be referred for a variety of reasons.

Patients seen on the wards are both acutely and chronically ill, with various types of nutritional problems/requirements, e.g. critically ill patients who require alternative feeding, such as enteral and parenteral nutrition, or patients with long-term chronic conditions such as Crohn’s disease, COPD and cardiovascular disease.

We use a range of assessment techniques such as weight history, anthropometrical measurements, food diaries and biochemistry to devise and evaluate nutritional plans for patients.

The aims of treatment are to maintain or improve nutritional status, aid recovery. Our assessment methods and treatment plans are tailored to your needs and we work alongside other members of the multidisciplinary team to ensure the care you receive is safe and as effective as possible.

Discharge. We aim to continue providing support to patients where necessary on discharge, by planning a programme which provides a seamless transition between hospital and the community services. You may be followed up via telephone or referred to the community team.

If you are not from the Southport area, we will liaise with the dietetic team near you. We will often write to your GP and/or Consultant with our action plan and any actions they need to take