Partners in the Dutch Approach

Over the last five years, the combined Dutch efforts to fight malnutrition have led to gradually decreasing malnutrition prevalence rates in all health care settings in the Netherlands. The following partners participated in our succesful ‘Dutch Approach’ The Dutch Malnutrition Steering Group (DMG) was established in 2005. This is a multi-professional group, consisting of physicians (e.g. a surgeon, geriatrician, anesthesiologist, general practitioner), dietitians, nurses and policy makers. Each participant represents their own profession and is able to make decisions on behalf of their profession. As an example the participating dietitian represents the Dutch Dietetic Association, the General Practitioner the Dutch GP association and so on. We have thus created an ability to draw on a wide range of resources as well as being able to resolve any issues more efficiently. At its start the Dutch Malnutrition Steering Group aimed to fight malnutrition only in the hospital setting. Later this was expanded to nursing homes as well as to the home care setting. The DMG has developed a consistent methodology to treat malnutrition. The methodology combines good clinical practice, scientific knowledge and field experience into simple instruments for screening and treating malnutrition.