Scandal of patients 'dying of starvation'

HUNDREDS of NHS patients in London are dying from starvation, disturbing figures reveal today.

A total of 223 people died from malnutrition in the capital's hospitals between 1997 and 2007.

Health chiefs today accused the Government of ignoring the issue of feeding patients properly.

They called for an urgent review of how staff monitor those admitted to hospital who are severely underweight.

This also includes patients who go hungry on NHS wards because nurses are not ensuring they are properly fed.

The Conservatives, who obtained the figures, blamed excessive paperwork for nurses not checking patients properly.

Shadow health minister Stephen O'Brien said: "A healthy diet and nutritional care is crucial if patients are to make a swift recovery. Yet the Government is presiding over a culture of carelessness and rising deaths.

"NHS frontline staff are overburdened by red tape and paperwork, and consistently spread too thin and too wide across the service.

"They must be released to do the job they are there to do - to help people or risk yet more unnecessary deaths."

Nationally over the period there were 2,311 hospital deaths where the cause was given as malnutrition. Nearly one in 10 was in a London hospital. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence recommends all patients be screened for signs of malnutrition when admitted.