Doctors, nurses and dietitians respond positively to Awareness Week

04/08/2013

' class='news-img'/> PINNT launches Quality of Life On-Line home artificial nutrition week and invites healthcare professional organisations to work in closer partnership

PINNT (Patients on Intravenous and Naso-gastric Nutrition Therapy) launches today (5 August) the first ever UK awareness week on artificial nutrition (5-11 August 2013).

As the UK wide charity and support group committed to improving the daily lives of all adults and children receiving artificial nutrition (AN) therapies, PINNT is committed to improving awareness and understanding of those therapies, as well as patient experience and interaction with health and care services. PINNT was prompted to run this Week now for two reasons:

The NHS has declared its commitment to putting patients at the heart of all it does and to improving care by listening to and acting on patient feedback and involving them in treatment and care decisions.

NICE published its Quality Standard of Nutrition Support for Adults in 2012, with Standards 4 and 5 setting out promises for patients with regard to training, support and regular review, placing responsibilities on professionals to deliver those promises.

Two new PINNT leaflets have been produced - one for professionals and one for patients - that spell out the promises made in the NICE Quality Standards so that patients are clear about what they should expect and professionals know what they should provide. In advance of the Awareness Week, PINNT invited 5 health care professional groups most closely involved with their health therapy to respond to the NICE Quality Standards promises and the charity s new leaflets and drive for meaningful partnership. Responses were received from British Intestinal Failure Alliance (BIFA), National Nurses Nutrition Group (NNNG), Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition Group (PENG dietitians), BAPEN and BAPEN Medical. Richard Shawyer, Vice Chair of PINNT says: The response from all these groups was encouraging and supportive. They all agreed to circulate our new leaflets to their membership in order to raise awareness of the NICE Quality Standards, with one organisation saying that these leaflets will help keep healthcare professionals on their toes . Two ideas which match PINNT s ambitions and are achievable are the setting up of more patient and professional liaison groups at hospitals and the implementation of a national patient satisfaction survey. PINNT looks forward to discussing these ideas further together with responding to invitations to contribute more effectively to forthcoming meetings and conferences. Each day of the Awareness Week (Monday 5 to Sunday 11 August), quotes from the responses received from professional organisations are being uploaded to the PINNT website together with two new patient stories each day, accessible from the home page www.pinnt.com.

Further media information from pr@pinnt.com 01264-326427 or 07887-714957

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