Clinical malnutrition in Nigerian hospitals is contributing to avoidable deaths and undermining recovery outcomes, according to experts and government officials who convened in Abuja for the 2025 Clinical Nutrition Conference of the West African Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (WASPEN).
Participants at the conference called for urgent interventions, improved training, and policy reforms to address what they described as a neglected public health crisis.
The event brought together policymakers, clinicians, nutritionists, and development partners in a shared mission to place hospital-based nutrition at the heart of healthcare delivery.
The Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Professor Muhammad Ali Pate, said the Federal Government is ramping up interventions to address malnutrition nationwide through the N774 Nutrition Project.
He said the project aims to ensure that nutrition services are extended from hospitals into communities across all 774 local government areas.
“Our goal is to ensure that nutrition support does not end at hospital discharge but continues seamlessly in the community,” Pate stated.
Represented by Dr. Emmanuel Abata, a Director in the Ministry, the Minister noted that ongoing reforms include the implementation of national guidelines for managing acute malnutrition, regular training of healthcare workers, and the development of evidence-based tools in partnership with WASPEN.
The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), through its Mandate Secretary for Health Services and Environment, Dr. Adedolapo Fasawe, acknowledged the growing double burden of malnutrition, undernutrition in rural areas and overnutrition in urban centers.
Represented by Dr. Gbenga Bello, Managing Director of the Hospitals Management Board, Fasawe said that while the administration has increased nutrition-related funding and awareness, access to specialized interventions like parenteral nutrition remains limited.
“Government is willing to partner with manufacturers to support local production of these essential nutrition products,” she said, calling for more private sector involvement.
Former President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria and Chairman of the conference, Professor Cyril Osifo, decried the scale of the problem.
He said more than 37 percent of Nigerian children are stunted, and approximately two million suffer from severe acute malnutrition.
He warned that malnourished patients, especially those discharged without proper support, are dying unnecessarily.
Osifo urged stronger partnerships between the health sector and pharmaceutical companies to produce affordable, indigenous nutrition formulas tailored to Nigerian needs.
He emphasized that hospital nutrition should be seen as a clinical imperative rather than a catering issue.
The Nigerian Medical Association (NMA) also raised concerns.
In a keynote address delivered on behalf of the association’s President, Professor Bala Audu, by Vice President Dr. Usha Anenga, the NMA described hospital malnutrition as a “silent epidemic” that significantly raises the risk of complications and death among hospitalized patients.
Audu said data from Nigerian hospitals shows that 71.3 percent of elderly patients and 41.2 percent of children under five admitted to hospitals are either malnourished or at risk.
These figures, he warned, are worse than the global average and reflect deep structural neglect.
“The crisis is rooted in outdated medical training, poor clinical policies, and a lack of structured nutrition services in most hospitals,” he said.
He recommended that all hospitals institute mandatory nutrition screening at the point of admission and form multidisciplinary teams involving physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and dietitians to lead hospital nutrition care.
He also called for dedicated funding in hospital budgets to cover nutrition services and products.
“Access to adequate nutrition in hospitals must be recognized as a basic human right. Failing to address hospital malnutrition amounts to social injustice,” Audu said.
In her remarks, WASPEN Founder and President, Dr. Teresa Pounds, underscored the urgency of the crisis and called for a national strategy to tackle hospital malnutrition.
Pounds, a U.S.-based clinical pharmacist and expert in parenteral and enteral nutrition, said she founded WASPEN after observing how patients in Nigerian hospitals were routinely discharged without proper nutritional assessment or support.
She said: “Hospitals are full of patients who cannot eat due to their medical conditions, yet we’re not identifying them, and we’re not doing enough to treat them. We have a skeleton in the hospital closet.”
She emphasized that clinical nutrition involves more than just feeding, it includes therapeutic nutritional care such as intravenous (parenteral) and tube (enteral) feeding.
She called for multidisciplinary teams trained in nutrition care and equipped with the right tools and products.
Pounds warned that the absence of proper nutritional products was already costing lives, referencing a recent case of a newborn who died because a hospital lacked specialized feeding formulas.
“That should not happen in this day and age,” she said.
She revealed that WASPEN is working with a Nigerian pharmaceutical company, Fitzen, to begin local manufacturing of parenteral nutrition products, saying, “They listened. I have the clinical knowledge, and they have the infrastructure. Production will soon begin by God’s grace. Others should follow”.
While commending the Federal Ministry of Health for its recent engagement, including participation in WASPEN’s health walk and sessions, she stressed that more commitment is needed.
“President Tinubu and his team have committed funds to fight community malnutrition. We’re saying, do the same for hospital malnutrition, fund the products, fund the systems,” she said.
Pounds urged the National Health Insurance Authority to include clinical nutrition in its coverage and called for policy reforms that officially integrate nutrition into mainstream healthcare.
“Change will come when clinical nutrition is no longer treated as optional, but as essential. We need policies, funding, and implementation to match the urgency of the problem,” she said.
