A third of nurses in the South West are not confident that it would be noticed if a relative of theirs was malnourished when entering hospital.

The findings come as part of Age UK's Still Hungry To Be Heard campaign.

The results spark fresh fears that older people are still being left to go hungry in hospital.

The charity says that monitoring of malnutrition in hospitals is poor with existing data revealing that 180,000 patients are still leaving hospital malnourished each year and 239 die of malnutrition during their stay.

The research for Age UK, carried out by ICM , shows that just 45 per cent of nurses in the region think their hospital screens older in-patients often enough.

Michelle Mitchell, charity director at Age UK, said: "It's extremely worrying that nurses still don't feel confident that a fundamental problem such as malnourishment will be picked up when an older person enters hospital.

"While recognition of the issue is high, not enough is being done to ensure that words are transferring into action on the wards. It is vital that the Government, Care Quality Commission (CQC) and NHS trusts fulfil their role in tackling this serious issue. The Government must introduce compulsory monitoring so that this issue can be effectively tackled. Age UK is also calling for the CQC to undertake a comprehensive review of hospital mealtimes. This way hospitals not taking steps to effectively stop malnutrition will be exposed."

As well as the impact on patient health, wellbeing and mortality there is also a financial impact of malnutrition with the cost to the NHS at £7.3 billion per year. This is due to longer or avoidable hospital stays, the need for more medication and higher risk of infection. In order to improve the quality of care, wards must tackle the issue of malnutrition. The Still Hungry To Be Heard report continues to push the adoption of Age UK's seven recommended steps which provide simple but effective solutions wards can adopt to ensure people in later life get the food and help they need at mealtimes.

In addition to the seven steps Age UK's Still Hungry To Be Heard campaign calls for the Government to introduce compulsory recording of malnutrition rates in hospitals. To date, there has been no accurate data to show how many patients are going into hospital malnourished and how many leave hospital malnourished.

If you would like to find out more about Still Hungry to be Heard or to request a copy of the report, call 0800 169 87 87, log onto www.ageuk.org.uk/htbh or email HTBH@ageuk.org.uk.