The federal government has been called upon to take decisive steps in addressing hospital-based malnutrition, a largely overlooked but critical public health challenge in Nigeria’s healthcare system.
This call was made during a joint press briefing by the West African Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (WASPEN) and the National Hospital, Abuja, ahead of the 2025 Clinical Nutrition Conference themed “Bridging the Gap: Integrating Hospital and Community Malnutrition Care in Developing Countries.”
The president of WASPEN, Mrs. Theresa Pound, underscored the urgent need for a structured national response to malnutrition in healthcare facilities, especially among vulnerable patient groups such as children and surgical cases.
“We must move beyond community-only interventions. Malnutrition is also rampant within our hospitals, yet it often goes unrecognized and unaddressed. Our goal is to change that by supporting hospitals with training, research, and institutional frameworks for effective nutrition care,” she said.
According to Mrs. Pound, the forthcoming conference is scheduled to begin with a pre-conference workshop on June 17, followed by the main event on June 18 and 19, will gather health professionals, policymakers, and institutional leaders from across Nigeria and West Africa.
The event is expected to feature presentations by representatives of the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), and Nutrition Society of Nigeria, among others. The emphasis will be on practical strategies to ensure continuity of care between hospitals and communities.
Citing the progress made at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) following a similar intervention, Mrs. Pound urged the Federal Ministry of Health to institutionalize hospital-based nutrition practices by establishing a national technical task force.
“We are calling on the Ministry of Health to partner with us in setting up a multidisciplinary task force—one that includes dietitians, physicians, nurses, and pharmacists—empowered to design and implement nutrition care policies in hospitals nationwide,” she added.
She noted that without proper nutrition screening at admission, many patients miss out on timely interventions, contributing to longer hospital stays, slower recovery, and poorer outcomes.
Representing the Chief Medical Director of the National Hospital Abuja, Professor Muhammad Mahmud, Dr. Lawal reaffirmed the hospital’s commitment to addressing malnutrition using a team-based approach.
“We manage patients from all over the country, and many arrive already malnourished. Our pediatric and surgical units are especially affected,” he stated.
Dr. Lawal disclosed that the hospital currently applies a multidisciplinary approach to patient nutrition, involving dietitians, physicians, nurses, and therapists. He added that enteral nutrition support is already in place and that the new partnership with WASPEN will help expand this capacity.
The hospital, he said, has also begun community-level outreach through its Department of Paediatrics to provide early nutritional assessments before cases escalate to tertiary care.
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“This MoU with WASPEN allows us to formalize our nutrition response. We’re now planning to roll out expert teams not just at the hospital, but also at the primary care level to ensure malnutrition is detected and managed early,” he said.
Although official statistics on in-patient malnutrition at the hospital were not disclosed at the briefing, the hospital confirmed that data collection is ongoing and will be presented during the upcoming conference.
The collaborative initiative between WASPEN and the National Hospital Abuja is expected to serve as a model for other institutions nationwide, particularly in the push to link hospital care with post-discharge community-based follow-up.
Mrs. Pound concluded by emphasizing that hospital malnutrition is a “silent epidemic” that requires urgent, coordinated action supported by government policy and adequate resource allocation.
“With the right partnerships and political will, Nigeria can lead West Africa in transforming nutrition care within its hospitals and ensure better health outcomes for all citizens,” she said.