WASPEN 2025: Federal Government Enjoined to Prioritize Hospital Nutritional Healthcare

WASPEN 2025: Federal Government Enjoined to Prioritize Hospital Nutritional Healthcare

…as WASPEN collaborates with healthcare professionals to promote awareness on clinical malnutrition.

By Naomi Onome

In a bid to integrate hospital and community malnutrition care,West African Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition ‘WASPEN’, in conjunction with National Hospital Abuja, for the 2025 conference is committed to creating awareness through collaborative resources and efforts and in synergy with the federal government to lay more focus on hospital malnutrition.

The conference, which will begin on the 16th and end on the 19th of June, 2025, is set to collaborate with physicians, nurses, pharmacists, dietitians, and nutritionists; leadership from the medical professional bodies including governmental and non-governmental organizations; policy makers; food and pharmaceutical companies; researchers; and academic institutions to establish sustainability in combating hospital malnutrition. Participants at the conference will include healthcare professionals, students, policymakers, and stakeholders.

Hospital nutritional healthcare encompasses the provision of appropriate and adequate body supplements to patients, with a focus on meeting their specific nutritional needs and addressing any potential deficiencies or imbalances. It’s an integral part of overall patient care, aiming to support healing, recovery, and overall well-being.

However, Dr. Teresa Pounds, the founder and president of WASPEN, in her address emphasized that the WASPEN 2025 Clinical Nutrition Conference is a landmark event that embodies a shared commitment to a well-nourished society. WASPEN She says it is a regionally focused organization committed to improving nutrition care across West Africa through clinical education, research, and interdisciplinary collaboration.

WASPEN aims at creating a West-African society where malnutrition and its effects no longer exist. To build the shared vision, WASPEN is bringing together dietitians, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and allied professionals into a unified, interdisciplinary association with a focus on early and consistent nutrition screening and diagnosis; timely intervention in both hospital and community settings; and expanding access to nutrition support through specialization and routine.

WASPEN also funds and promotes research to drive innovation and evidence-based practices; the organization is leading a cross-sector collaboration to provide the knowledge and best practices needed to eliminate malnutrition across our region. WAPEN collaboration also cuts across pharmaceutical companies abroad like Fitzin to provide affordable health products for malnutrition patients by establishing their source in Nigeria. Malnutrition in hospitalized patients could be fatal due to delayed responses to treatment, prolonged hospitalisation.high cost of treatment, and others. It is imperative to say that early identification could curb the impending danger of malnutrition that patients experience. Moreover, there is a need for the provision of support and resources to address hospital malnutrition.

According to Dr. Teresa Pounds, the 2025 theme, which centers on “Bridging the Gap by Integrating Hospital and Community Malnutrition Care in Developing Countries,” speaks directly to a pressing reality, which is the disconnect between care delivered in our hospitals and what is sustained in our communities. This gap costs lives, especially among the most vulnerable, which will enable a united response in the forthcoming conference. This year’s conference is exceptional for its depth of multidisciplinary representation, a collaborative team of combined healthcare professionals including leadership from professional bodies including the Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives, Nutrition Society of Nigeria (NSN), Institute of Dietetics in Nigeria (IDN), and others. …

Aside from being a professional event, the 2025 conference is also a cross-sector movement rooted in science, service, and impact. Highlights of the 3-day program oversee a 3-day course where participants will experience keynotes and expert panels from across clinical, academic, and regulatory spheres; case studies; poster sessions; product showcases; and the inauguration of the Nutrition Steering Committee at National Hospital Abuja.

Leaders such as Prof. Muhammad Raji Mahmud, the host and CMD of National Hospital Abuja; Prof. Cyril Usifoh, the chairman of the ceremony; and Prof. Audu Bala will deliver the keynote on hospital-community care integration. Dr. Felix Alakaloko will speak on ‘showcasing the LUTH journey toward nutrition support excellence,’ and many more across all disciplines will give lectures on the prevailing topic, ‘ From artificial intelligence in clinical nutrition to local production and supply chain reforms.’

The health walk specifically created to enhance public awareness for nutrition as a human right will be observed on June 17th and themed “Nutrition is a Human Right: Let Every Step Count in Fighting Against Malnutrition.” This walk is said to be a public declaration — not just of solidarity, but of urgency to say malnutrition is preventable, and we believe the public has a right to understand, advocate for, and participate in nutrition solutions. The walk brings awareness to hospital malnutrition and energizes the ongoing campaign to make nutrition support a visible and well-funded priority.

Dr. Teresa noted that the statistical data for cases of hospital malnutrition in patients cannot be correctly ascertained but will be put into perspective during the oncoming conference with plans to carry out surveys through an appointed taskforce. Urged the media to continually spread the information of hospital malnutrition across the nation to increase awareness.

Urged the federal government to take the lead in establishing a multi-sectoral national task force dedicated to the continued awareness, policy reform, and delivery of practical solutions to combat hospital malnutrition. WASPEN, she says, is committed to supporting this effort with evidence, expertise, and partnership, but it must be driven as a national priority with long-term sustainability in mind.

The CMD of the National Hospital, represented by Dr. Isiaka Lawal, the Chairman of the Medical Advisory Committee (CMAC), in his statements to the press revealed that a committee has been established to curb hospital malnutrition aside from partnership with WASPEN, and they are called the dietetics. He said with the WASPEN conference in place, sustainable measures on the ground will ultimately improve management of patients with malnutrition issues.

The LOC Chairperson, Clara Adesola, in a corresponding statement, applauds the effort of WASPEN’s collaboration with health care professionals across the nation to provide a platform where knowledge and best practices in clinical nutrition are shared, including the promoting of interdisciplinary collaboration. She said the event is poised to advocate for nutritional support for hospitalized patients in Nigeria. It is also worthy of note that patients who suffer malnutrition cut across all the ages, including pediatrics, middle-aged, and elderly, particularly, but with the accorded healthcare facility, there is a high chance of recovery; hence the need for an awareness campaign in the health institutions and the community at large as proffered by WASPEN and the collaborating agencies, she added.

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Onome Naomi

I’m a general news reporter; I report news and happenings around the globe 🌎

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