The Scottish Government is making £1.08m available to boards to enable them to employ the champions as part of the Food, Fluid and Nutrition programme. 

The programme, designed to ensure that all patients receive the highest standard to nutritional care during their hospital stay, includes information and guidance for staff on nutritional standards including practice development and education.  A monitoring tool will be tested initially in NHS Forth Valley, Highland and Grampian for a three month period before being rolled out to all health boards in October.

The nutrition champions will be NHS employees from a range of backgrounds from managerial to clinical positions.  Their appointment will be for two years during which champions will support the Food, Fluid and Nutrition programme.

Speaking at the launch of the programme at Wishaw General Hospital, Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said:

"The Food, Fluid and Nutrition programme will help to address the nutritional needs of all patients, whatever their dietary requirements are.

"A nutritious balanced diet is clearly a crucial part of every patient's treatment and recovery. That is why we are launching this programme to highlight the importance of the appropriate food provision for all patients.

"We are also providing help and support for staff to implement the programme by providing funding for boards to appoint nutrition champions. I believe these nutrition standards will make a real difference to patients' experience of hospitals and will, ultimately, make a significant contribution to the quality of care in our hospitals."

Jeannette Morrison, programme manager for Improving Nutritional Care Programme at NHS Quality Improvement Scotland, added:

"NHS Quality Improvement Scotland is delighted to be working jointly with NHS Education for Scotland to support staff through a programme of work centring on practice development and education. The nutrition champions will be key to supporting NHS boards to improve nutritional care for patients, and they will work closely with Charge Nurses and other staff to improve the nutritional care for patients whilst in hospital."