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28th February, 2009
KOTA KINABALU: The introduction of clinical nutrition which provide nutrients in the body and its effect on health and treatment of disease could perhaps be the answer to address the congestion in hospitals here, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Yahya Hussin.
“When patients heal faster, they will not require longer hospital stays. Now this will be a great help in Sabah, especially Kota Kinabalu as our hospital is usually over crowded,” said Yahya when launching the Fresenius Kabi Advanced Nutrition Course Asia 2009 at a resort yesterday.
Yahya who is also the Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry believed that clinical nutrition can give a better chance of recovery and in some cases, survival, when applied at an early stage.
Parenteral & Enteral Nutrition Society of Asia and Malaysia (PENSA and PENSMA) president Harbans Kaur Dhillon said provision of nutrition support to a patient in the hospital involves the technical expertise of a nutrition support team.
She said FRANC Asia is an important seminar for health care professionals to develop knowledge, skills and practice of clinical nutrition to build a culture of optimising clinical nutrition care in hospitals.
Speaker at FRANC Asia 2009 and professor of intensive care unit medicine at Queens University (Canada) Prof Dr Daren Heyland said clinical nutrition plays a critical role in improving patients with acute or chronic diseases especially patients who are unable to feed themselves sufficiently.
“Under normal circumstances, diet alone is able to provide most or all of the necessary nutrients the human body needs. Patients who require clinical nutrition typically have an invalid digestive system as a result of an accident, surgery or treatment therapy,”
“As these patients are severely malnourished or unable to ingest food, clinical nutrition ensures that their cells and muscles receive the nutrients needed for repair, promoting speedier recovery,” he said.
Clinical nutrition is the use of artificial (enteral and parenteral nutrition) as a therapy that supports the maintenance of health and treatment of disease.
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