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Dietetics - Community

The dietitians working in community see patients in a variety of settings including community hospitals, community clinics, care homes and in their own homes.  We liaise with a range of other health professionals including GPs, consultants, district and practice nurses, speech and language therapists, physiotherapists and occupational therapists.  Students can expect to see a broad range of medical conditions, dietary advice and care settings through time spent with the community dietitians.

Inpatients

We cover 7 community hospitals across North Derbyshire.   Community hospital wards include hospital rehabilitation and older person’s mental health.  The majority of inpatients are referred for nutrition support advice.  

Outpatients

We have 7 outpatient clinics in locations across North Derbyshire to enable our patients to access our service closer to home.  Community clinics include patients referred for:

 

  • Nutrition Support

  • Weight Reduction

  • Coeliac Disease

  • Food Intolerance/Allergy

  • Type 2 Diabetes

  • IBS + Gastro-intestinal problems

  • Healthy Eating

  • Vitamin and Mineral deficiencies

Visits

We provide home visits for patients who are unable to attend an outpatient clinic and also see people in residential and nursing care homes.  Patients who require nutrition support advice are referred to the community service with a raised MUST score of 2 or more (high risk of malnutrition).  We work with patients, their carers and family to support their eating and drinking, including food fortification advice, increased calories and oral nutritional supplements (ONS). We have an Assistant Dietetic Practitioner who also manages nutrition support patients. 

 

Patients within the home setting may also be referred for similar reasons to those seen in outpatient clinic.

 

We provide advice and support for patients that require artificial feeding in the community. We see patients living in care homes and in their own homes and provide dietetic input for a range of different feeding tubes tube feeds e.g. PEGs, balloon gastrostomies, low-profile gastrostomies, and jejunostomies.  We support patients with various feeding methods, including pump feeding and bolus feeding and we manage their feed delivery service (Nutricia Homeward). 

Training

We provide education sessions for patients and also deliver training sessions for healthcare assistants, nurses and allied health professionals working within DCHS (Derbyshire Community Health Service).

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