HEALTH watchdogs in Gwent welcomed proposals to clarify the meaning of protected mealtimes in hospitals in Wales, to make it clear relatives can go on to wards to help patients eat.

The Assembly’s public accounts committee wants the Welsh Government to issue supplementary guidance on the issue “clearly stating that the protected mealtimes policy should not be used to exclude relatives and carers from providing assistance with eating to patients.”

It also wants the extra guidance to make that where relatives and carers wish to assist, they should be “actively encouraged” to do so.

The committee’s recommendation is contained in a report on hospital catering and patient nutrition, published today.

Protected mealtimes are intended to provide a period of quiet where patients can eat without interruption.

The policy has been introduced in Gwent hospitals and across Wales during the past few years, but Aneurin Bevan Community Health Council and other CHCs, as independent patients’ watchdogs, have received reports from relatives and carers who have been unable, or have felt unable, to go into hospital to help a patient eat, as they have been told by nurses that visitors are excluded at protected mealtimes.

“It is intended to exclude medical interventions, such as doctors coming to check on patients during meals, but it has been interpreted on some wards as excluding all visitors too,” said Aneurin BevanCHC deputy chief officer David Kenny.

“The issue is being tackled in Gwent hospitals, but we greatly welcome this recommendation.

“Some patients need help to eat their meals, and if relatives can come in, it helps the nursing staff. Some can eat by themselves, but often need encouragement and relatives or carers are ideally placed to do that.”

The committee’s chairman, Darren Millar AM, said that when properly applied, the policy improved patients’ recovery.

He added that it is “disturbing”

that the policy could have the opposite effect in some cases, due to “poor communication and interpretation.”