Nutrition at Ipswich Hospital

Nutrition services for adults at Ipswich Hospital

The Ipswich Hospital nutrition and dietetics team provide nutritional care to patients:

• on hospital wards
• in clinics at the hospital
• in clinics at some community locations
• in virtual (online) clinics

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

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
• increased requirements related to inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, wound healing, respiratory or liver disease
• identifying foods which may be triggering symptoms
• guiding individuals on how to achieve a nutritionally adequate diet
• 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. We do not carry out allergy testing. Your GP will refer you to an allergy specialist if it is appropriate.

Nutrition services for children at Ipswich Hospital

Our paediatric dietitians see children between birth and 16 years old. We will

• design an individual plan for the child
• monitor their growth
• assess ongoing nutritional requirements

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 need tube feeding
• cystic fibrosis
• cancer
• cardiac and metabolic problems

For obesity, we see children under 2 years of age. Children over 2 years are cared for by One Life Suffolk.

Paediatric dietitians will work with you and your child to identify any changes you need to make. We offer support to:

• improve their allergy symptoms
• 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

Clinic appointments

We see patients in hospital clinics, community clinics and virtual (online) clinics. Please check your appointment letter for details.

At Ipswich Hospital, Nutrition and Dietetics clinics are at the north end of the hospital.

Dietitians Clinic Accessibility information from AccessAble (Opens in a new window)

You may want to keep a simple food diary for the 3 days before the appointment. This will help you to provide us with more detailed information.

If your appointment is in an Attend Anywhere virtual appointment clinic, please record a weight and height for the patient. For children, a recent health visitor weight in the red book would be acceptable.

What happens after the nutrition appointment?

Depending on the outcome of your appointment we may discharge you back to your referrer, or we may arrange a virtual follow up with you. We will discuss and agree this appointment with you at the time. Follow ups can occur any time from a few weeks to a year after an initial appointment, depending on your condition.

Nutritional supplements

If we recommend that you take some nutritional supplement drinks, we will electronically contact your GP to ask the GP to prescribe them.

You should contact your GP surgery to find out when the prescription will be ready for collection. Do not wait for your surgery or pharmacy to contact you.

If you need to try out any drinks first, we will request these via an electronic sample service. They should arrive direct to your door within 5 working days.