Dietitians work with both healthy and sick people, uniquely, they use the most up-to-date public health and scientific research on food, health and disease which they translate into practical guidance to enable people to make appropriate lifestyle and food choices.
Dietitians are the only nutrition professionals to be regulated by law and have an ethical code of conduct similar to doctors. This means that you, as patients/clients, are protected and can be assured that you will get the latest credible evidence-based information.
You can trust a dietitian to know about nutrition!
The wave of cuts in healthcare spending means that health services are at increasing risk of being axed! If your dietetic service was axed or cut in any way this could mean:
- Longer waiting times to see a dietitian
- Vulnerable patients becoming unnecessarily malnourished (you may have thought that malnutrition only happens in parts of Africa but it is happening throughout the UK today)
- Less help to ease your symptoms
- Less help to control your medical condition e.g. diabetes, coeliac disease and many others
- Unnecessary admission to hospital
- Unnecessarily prolonged stays in hospital
“Has a dietitian helped you to significantly improve the quality of your life?”
“Do you value the dietetic service that you have experienced?”
“Do you think it is important for you, your child or elderly relative to see a dietitian?”
“Do want your local dietetic service to be secured for the future?”
If you have answered 'yes' to the above questions then you can help us!
To help our ‘Trust a Dietitian’ campaign you could:
- Write to your MP and explain how the dietitian helped you to significantly improve the quality of your life. Don’t forget to add that you are worried about this service being cut and how this would affect you
- Write to the Chief executive of the Trust that employs the dietitians – this could be a hospital or community Trust. Explain how the dietitian helped you to significantly improve the quality of your life and add that you are worried about this service being cut
- Tell your local dietitians that you have been happy with the service – they may use your story to support their cause within their Trust or in the local press or radio
- If you have been directly affected by a cut to the dietetic service then talk to the press and your MP