Up to 30% of Vietnamese patients suffer from malnutrition, showed a survey on nutritional conditions at hospitals conducted in the second half of 2010. The survey to record weight measurements and albumin levels of patients at Hanoi-based Bach Mai hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, n: Surveythe HCM City-based Cho Ray Hospital’s Department of Surgery and the Can Tho Hospital, founded that 40%-60% of the patients are underweight. Dr. Nguyen Gia Binh, head of Bach Mai’s Intensive Care Unit blamed the situation to inadequate attention to their nutritional needs during the treatment process, adding that people often bring their own home-cooked food to the hospital for their family members, without awareness that the food may not be sufficiently nutritious for the patient. It is essential for nutritionists to advise patients on what to eat or how many calories to take in each meal, he emphasized, however, admitting that they have yet to provide patients with nutritionists in Vietnamese hospitals.
“Malnutrition can retard the treatment and recovery progress as well as raise the rates of complications and infection by 20% and 6%, respectively,” experts attributed.
“Eating much salty food can increase the blood pressure of hypertension patients. Kidney disease patients get worse if they eat food with high levels of protein,” they added.
Dr. Nguyen Quoc Tuan, head of the Planning Section of Bach Mai Hospital suggests that changing the patients’ awareness of the food importance in treatment and recovery is vital to improving their nutrition intake as the food not only has certain influence on the illness but also interacts itself with the medicine given. Expert also recommended that the patients’ diet regime should be considered as medicine and covered by insurance. A standardized nutrient diet will cost a patient VND50,000-VND60,000 for 3 meals per day, while they have to pay for nutrition infusion is in the area of hundreds of thousands dongs. (tuoitrenews.vn April 21)
