HAPPY 70TH BIRTHDAY NHS! Louise Robertson Specialist Dietitian Louise is an experienced NHS dietitian who has been specialising in the fascinating area of Inherited Metabolic Disorders in adults for the last 10 years. In her spare time she enjoys running her blog Dietitian's Life with her colleague and good friend Sarah Howe, playing the cello and keeping up with her two little girls! www. dietitianslife.com
References 1 Mary Bownes (1993). The Work of Dietitians in Great Britain. Social Policy and Administra-tion, vol 27, no 4, p 335 2 Health and Care Professions Council website. www.hpc-uk.org
I have always known the NHS, but my grandparents were there at the start! My paternal grandmother was a nurse working at Hartlepool Hospital and my grandfather a hospital engineer. My maternal grandparents were both doctors. My mother was a physiotherapist and her calories, protein, inorganic elements and sister an NHS nurse. One sister-in-law is a vitamins and it is only an effort that we can speech and language therapist, the other imagine that there may be more legs for a clinical psychologist. Two of my cousins dietetics to stand on.’ He was quite right, work as doctors and one cousin has gone as these are still the principles of nutrition into NHS management. And there’s me: today (macro and micronutrients). He an NHS dietitian for 16 years. went on to say, ‘What directions the future Over the past 70 years, medicine, progress of dietetics will take is impossible nutrition and dietetics have evolved. to say. It is probably that more vitamins The first dietetic department appeared at will be discovered or subdivided further the Edinburgh Royal and new ‘accessory’ Infirmary in 1924. The We haven’t found many food substances may first meeting of the BDA be brought to light’. We more vitamins in 70 was in 1936 with 77 haven’t found many members.1 There are now years, but we have found more vitamins in 70 9,585 qualified working years, but we have found new ‘accessory food dietitians in the UK2 with substances’: probiotics, new ‘accessory food most having worked in prebiotics, antioxidants substances’: probiotics, the NHS at some point in prebiotics, antioxidants and FODMAPs. their career. and FODMAPs. Back in 2010, when There are forgotten we cleared out our old offices at Selly Oak diets too, such as the Lenhartz diet for Hospital in Birmingham ready to move into gastric ulcer. Simmons describes how the brand new Queen Elizabeth Hospital, gastric ulcers can be healed by giving I saved some old dietetic textbooks a diet of eggs and milk fed by a spoon, heading for the skip. They included The building up over a week. Another was Handbook of Diets by Rose Simmons, the Sippy Diet which consisted of small published in 1937 and Hutchinson’s Food repeated doses of alkali with milk to and the Principles of Dietetics 5th edition, neutralise acid in the stomach. She warns, published in 1922 and the 9th edition in ‘When patients are taking a continuous 1944. These books would have been used dose of alkali, watch for symptoms of by some of the first dietitians who worked alkali poisoning, such as bad dreams, at Selly Oak Hospital. headaches, nausea, delirium and tetany!’ Some of what we knew about What further complexities of diet nutrition 70 years ago hasn’t changed. and nutrition will we find out about Hutchinson’s 9th edition from 1944 states in the next 70 years and will the NHS that, ‘Dietetics stands foursquare upon still be around? www.NHDmag.com August/September 2018 - Issue 137
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Date of preparation: May 2018 ANUKANI180120q Like all juice-style ONS, Ensure Plus juce contains milk protein, and is not suitable for patients on a milk protein restricted diet.