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Projects and Research

North Charnwood ONS Project

The rising cost to GPs of prescribing oral nutritional supplements (ONS) has been identified locally as a high priority for action. In one locality, an enhanced dietetic service was funded by the locality commissioning group to implement a care pathway to manage care home residents at risk of malnutrition and ensure appropriate prescribing of oral nutritional supplements. Care home staff used a local nutritional screening tool to identify a resident at high risk of malnutrition, the resident was referred to the dietitian who carried out an assessment and produced a care plan. If ONS were required, the dietitian confirmed this need to the patient's GP; if ONS were not appropriate they were discontinued. The patient was reviewed regularly by the dietitian against expected outcomes. Training was provided for care home staff to increase their knowledge and skills in relation to nutritional screening, monitoring and food first.
The results showed that involvement of the dietitian led to more appropriate prescribing of ONS and produced significant savings to the GPs' prescribing budgets.
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