Nutrition

Colchester Hospital

Adults

We provide support in care of the elderly wards.

We support patients who need artificial nutrition in hospital and at home.

We provide support and advice to community colleagues.

Children

We have a highly skilled team of expert children’s dietitians who support children and young people in a range of areas, including:

• Cystic fibrosis
• Allergies
• Neonatal and young babies
• Stomach and intestine disorders
• Diabetes

We have clinics for children with these needs and issues:

• tube feeding at home
• food allergies
• faltering growth
• fussy eating
• healthy eating and support for overweight children

Clinics

Ipswich Hospital

The Nutrition and Dietetics department provide nutritional care to both inpatients and outpatients as well as to people in the community.

Dietitans

Our dietitians assess, diagnose and treat diet and nutrition problems at an individual and wider public health level.

Uniquely, they use the most up-to-date public health and scientific research on food, health and disease, and guidance to enable people to make appropriate lifestyle and food choices.

Dietetic assistant practitioners

Dietetic assistant practitioners deliver delegated dietetic care to those patients who are at risk of malnutrition. They have achieved specific dietetic competencies in line with those developed by the British Dietetic Association (BDA).

Dietetic assistants

Dietetic assistants work under the supervision of a dietitian in either a community or hospital setting and provide a supportive role.

Paediatric dietitians

Our paediatric dietitians assess the need for dietary management and design an individual plan to meet the needs of children aged between 0-16, monitoring their growth and ongoing nutritional requirements.

Patients that have been referred to the service will be seen in one of our hospital-based or community-based clinics as well as in virtual clinics. Referrals are usually made by a paediatric consultant, GP, health visitor or by a school nurse.

We see babies, children and young adults with a range of nutritional issues, including:

• unexplained weight loss or poor growth
• food allergies and intolerances
• premature babies with poor growth
• those who require tube feeding
• cystic fibrosis, Oncology, cardiac and metabolic patients
• obesity—we see children under 2 years of age. Those over 2 years should be referred to One Life Suffolk.

Paediatric dietitians will work with parents and children to identify any changes that need to be made depending on their referral. We offer support to:

• improve their symptoms, e.g. allergies
• encourage your child with their eating
• promote weight gain in children who are underweight
• meet their nutritional requirements when a child is having a restricted diet
• support weight reduction.

Adult dietitians

Our dietitians provide tailored, dietary advice for a range of conditions, including:

• healthy eating advice to help manage diabetes and/or promote weight reduction
• nutrition support to help people with a reduced appetite, or people who are unable to meet their requirements
• increased requirements which may be related to inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, wound healing, respiratory or liver disease
• therapeutic advice: identifying foods which may be triggering symptoms and guiding individuals on how to achieve a nutritionally adequate diet whilst managing their conditions
• advising on special diets for specific conditions such as Coeliac disease, renal disease and diverticular disease.

Dietitians can advise on diets appropriate for allergies and intolerances but DO NOT carry out allergy testing. A referral from your GP to an allergy specialist would be required if testing is indicated and appropriate.

Your clinic appointment/Virtual Clinic information

If you have a Virtual Clinic appointment then you can access your appointment here:

Prior to your appointment it would be useful for you to have recorded a weight and height for yourself/your child. For children, a recent health visitor weight in the red book would also be acceptable.
You may also want to keep a simple food diary for the 3 days prior to your appointment to provide us with more detailed information.
We are currently able to offer a range of appointments including virtual (telephone or videocalls). We are currently running a very limited face to face service due to Coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions.

The decision regarding the type of appointment you will be offered will be made by the dietitians when they triage your referral. Please check your clinic letter for further details regarding which type of appointment you have been offered.

Visit the Attend Anywhere page

Instructions for attending your telephone or video appointment – see the Attend Anywhere Patient Information Leaflet for help.

Find out more about how your consultation will work, HERE.

What happens after my appointment? 

Depending on the outcome of your appointment you may be discharged back to your referrer, or a virtual follow up will be arranged. This appointment will be discussed and agreed with you at the time. Follow ups can occur any time from a few weeks to a year after an initial appointment depending on the indication.

Nutritional supplements

If it has been recommended that you take some nutritional supplement drinks as a result of your assessment then the dietitian will electronically write to your GP requesting a prescription for the relevant products. You will need to contact your surgery to find out when the prescription will be ready for collection. Do not wait for your surgery or pharmacy to contact you, prescriptions are not always completed automatically.

If you need to try any drinks first these will be requested with your consent via an electronic sample service and should be sent direct to your door within 5 working days.

Referrals:

A referral can be made to our service via your GP, consultant, specialist nurse, speech and language therapist, or health visitor/school nursing team. If you feel you require a referral to our service then please speak with one of these health care professionals.
If a referral has already been made then we will contact you in due course to advise what format the appointment will be (virtual or face to face) and when this will take place.
You may also be offered a group session depending on the advice needed, these will be either face to face or via the Microsoft Teams platform.

Contact us

For all dietetic queries please call our department on 01473 704 000, in office hours between 8am and 4pm.
Messages can be left on the answerphone outside of office hours and the relevant person will get back to you, usually within 3 working days
Appointment enquiries: 01473 704 001

Healthy eating advice

British Dietetic Association Main Website
British Dietetic Association Food Fact Sheets
Food Standards Agency
British Nutrition Foundation

Older People

Age UK
Contact the Elderly
Royal Voluntary Service

Food Delivery Schemes

Royal Voluntary Service Meals on Wheels
Wiltshire Farm Foods
Oak House Foods

Heart Health

British Heart Foundation
Heart UK

Weight Loss

Change 4 Life
Weight Wise

Diabetes

Diabetes UK

Clinics

Aldeburgh Hospital

Clinics

Bluebird Lodge

Dietitians regularly visit this hospital.

Patients are screened on admission and referred to the dietitian if they are at high risk of malnutrition or require advice on therapeutic diets.

Clacton Hospital

Dietitians regularly visit this hospital.

Patients are screened on admission and referred to the dietitian if they are at high risk of malnutrition or require advice on therapeutic diets.

Felixstowe Hospital

Dietitians regularly visit this hospital.

Patients are screened on admission and referred to the dietitian if they are at high risk of malnutrition or require advice on therapeutic diets.

Halstead Hospital

Dietitians regularly visit this hospital.

Patients are screened on admission and referred to the dietitian if they are at high risk of malnutrition or require advice on therapeutic diets.

Harwich Hospital

Dietitians regularly visit this hospital.

Patients are screened on admission and referred to the dietitian if they are at high risk of malnutrition or require advice on therapeutic diets.

In the community

Community services

The Ipswich and East Suffolk community team supports adults in their own home, sheltered accommodation, supported living, care homes, hospices and community hospitals.

We provide dietetic care plans for conditions including malnutrition, tube feeding and therapeutic diets.

In Colchester and North East Essex, the community support is provided by Anglian Community Enterprise.

Hospital outreach clinics

The Ipswich Hospital team hold clinics at

• Stow Health Centre, Stowmarket
• Framfield House, Woodbridge