Bromley Healthcare gets go ahead to broaden the battle against obesity and malnutrition in Lewisham

Community healthcare social enterprise Bromley Healthcare has won a contract to broaden the service offered by its dietitians in Lewisham to ensure dietary support reaches the most vulnerable. From October the service will double its capacity and start providing vital nutrition and lifestyle advice to people in nursing and care homes, and to anyone who has been prescribed oral nutritional supplements.

The expansion of this service, commissioned by Lewisham Clinical Commissioning Group, comes at a time when poor diet is the lifestyle factor having the biggest impact on NHS budgets. Malnutrition accounts for 10% of UK public expenditure on healthcare, and the estimated cost to NHS Lewisham of diseases relating to weight and obesity is £84.5 million.

Bromley Healthcare’s dietitians have been operating in Lewisham since April 2013 and already provide weight management support and other dietary advice through GP surgeries.

“93% of malnourished people reside in community care – the very elderly, the learning disabled and the mentally ill – but their poor nutrition often goes unrecognised and untreated,” said Jonathan Lewis, chief executive of Bromley Healthcare. “The expansion of our service in Lewisham will offer vital nutritional support and guidance that will not only reduce the pressure on the health service, but most importantly improve the health, quality of life and wellbeing of these very vulnerable people.”

  • Malnutrition in Lewisham is predicted to rise by 31% in line with an increase in the number of individuals aged 65 to 90 years
  • 50-70% of prescriptions for oral nutrition supplements are inappropriate.
  • 61% of adults in Lewisham are overweight or obese
  • 90% of UK adults with type-2 diabetes are overweight or obese

Improving nutrition with the support of a dietitian can help prevent health problems, increase quality of life and wellbeing for all patients, especially those living with long-term conditions both mental and physical, the very frail, and the disabled.

In 2010 the coalition government published the Healthy Lives Healthy People strategy which outlined the role of public health in supporting people to change behaviour to make healthy choices. The report states that changing adult’s behaviour could reduce premature death, and illness, avoiding substantial proportion of cancers and over 30% of circulatory diseases.

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For more information contact Melanie Callum in the Bromley Healthcare media office on 020 8315 8741 or melanie.callum@bromleyhealthcare-cic.nhs.uk.

Notes for editors:

Bromley Healthcare was established in 2011 as an employee-owned social enterprise that ‘spun-out’ of the NHS. The organisation runs community health services in Bromley, Greenwich, Bexley, Croydon, Lewisham and Suffolk, providing a wide range of services to people of all ages. Services range from health visiting to district nursing, school nurses to specialist nurses, therapy services for adults and children, urgent care centres, services to help prevent hospital admissions and also facilitate early hospital discharge. For more information visit www.bromleyhealthcare.org.uk.