The role of dietitians in Lincolnshire - column by Rachel Thompson, Lead Dietitian

I’m Rachel Thompson and I am the lead dietitian for Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group (LCHG).

Every year, Dietitians Week is held on the first week of June, so a great opportunity to highlight our service and the fantastic contribution our dietitians make across Lincolnshire.

To give you some background, dietitians are qualified and regulated health professionals who assess, diagnose and treat dietary and nutritional problems at an individual and wider public health level. They interpret the science of nutrition to improve health and treat diseases and conditions by educating and giving practical, personalised advice to clients, patients, carers and colleagues.

Additionally, dietitians plan and implement public health programmes to promote health and prevent nutrition related diseases.

This year, the theme of Dietitians Week is The Future of Dietetics. Dietitians play an increasing role in sustainability. The British Dietetics Association’s campaign: One Blue Dot, outlines how dietitians are supporting people to understand how to eat a well-balanced, sustainable and varied diet whilst balancing environmental and nutritional science. You can find out more about this campaign on the British Dietetics Association’s website.

To support this campaign, we are working with our hospital catering service to manage food wastage, which includes reviewing our hospital menus and our suppliers.

In Lincolnshire, the Nutrition and Dietetics Service is provided by LCHG, which is made up of two organisations, Lincolnshire Community Health Services NHS Trust and United Lincolnshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust (ULTH).

The service provides an effective nutritional education service for patients and staff, and is made up of registered dietitians, dietetic support workers, and dietetic degree apprentices. The team offers services across a range of specialities including:

• Nutrition support and enteral feeding: The team assists patients requiring tube feeding which includes a dedicated Home Enteral Nutrition team.
• Critical care: The service supports patients during their admission to our critical units across Lincolnshire’s Hospitals.
• Oncology: The service provides support to patients who are diagnosed with cancer, who have altered nutritional intakes either as result of their cancer or their treatment.
• Chronic health conditions: The team helps manage nutrition for individuals with diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke and renal disease.
• Paediatric nutrition: The service supports children with dietary needs including those requiring enteral (tube) nutrition support at home.

I hope this has given you a flavour of the work of our dietitians. For further information about dietetics, please visit the ULTH website.