Nutrition and dietetics

Dietitians can help you to understand and manage your condition and make changes to your diet related to various conditions:

• Allergies
• Constipation and other gastro intestinal problems
• Diabetes
• Dietary exclusions
• High cholesterol
• Kidney problems
• Nutrition support
• People who have cancer
• People who have had a stroke
• Tube feeding
• Weight management
  • Adults
  • Children

And can help you to:

• Promote a healthy balanced diet
• Promote healthy lifestyle changes
• Support you through recovery
• Minimise risk of malnutrition
• Minimise risk of skin damage
• Improve strength to allow you to improve mobility
• Secondary prevention

We work closely with patients and their family or carers to provide patient centred care, considering medical conditions and blood results when making a plan and calculating requirements for the individual.

You are able to access the dietetic service with a referral from your GP or a Trust Consultant, Specialist Nurse or Therapist. We also accept referrals from care homes.

We have two main bases;

• South Tyneside Hospital in Edythe Brown House
• Sunderland Royal Hospital, Entrance 8

We run clinics at various locations across the Trust and patients are offered, where possible, the choice of venue and time to suit their needs. 

Evening clinics are available at some venues. 

The location of your appointment will be noted on your appointment letter or text that you receive prior to your appointment.

We also provide home telephone clinics and home visits if you are unable to come to the clinic.

Many Nutrition and Dietetic services are available at both sites, these include:

Acute (Hospital) Dietitians and Dietetic Support Workers (DSW)

We provide assessment and treatment to patients who are admitted to hospital who require help and support and advice with their diet. We are able to provide advice around nutrition, nutritional support, healthy eating, food textures and supplements to help support multiple medical conditions.

Dietitians and DSW’s are also involved in on-going training for other healthcare professions within both hospital and community settings.

If you are admitted to hospital you will be screened using the Malnutrition Universal Screening Tool (MUST) and those identified at high risk will be referred to the dietetic department for assessment & treatment.

ICCU Dietitian

Patients on the ICCU can have complex nutritional needs due to the treatment that they are receiving. Sedation, renal replacement therapy and surgery can all impact on what they need and a dietitian’s role on the unit is to take all of these factors into account and provide individualised plans.

Gastro Team

Dietitians working within the gastroenterology team assess your nutrition and hydration needs in the inpatient and outpatient setting. We provide support for patients who have a range of GI conditions affecting the whole of the GI tract including patients with coeliac disease, cancers of the UGI tract, inflammatory bowel disease, irritable bowel, pancreatic and liver disease and provide individualised plans.

Paediatric Team

Our paediatric dietetic teams provide a service to children and their families.

At Sunderland Royal Hospital the service includes both the in and out patients.

At South Tyneside, children and their families are seen as out patients.

The children and young people that we see are from birth to 18 years of age.

We see children and young people with nutritional problems or conditions including:

• Allergies
• Behavioural eating problems
• Faltering Growth
• Nutritional deficiencies
• Feeding difficulties
• Underweight or overweight
• Diabetes – Type I and Type II Diabetes
• Coeliac Disease
• Children that require Nasogastric or Gastrostomy feeding

We work alongside families, Health Visitors, School Nurses, Allied Health Professionals and Paediatricians to ensure a multidisciplinary approach to care.

Paediatric Dietitians also support the Emergency Children's Care Unit, and various Consultant-led clinics

Diabetes Management Team

The diabetes team provide specialist evidence based dietary advice while considering factors including nutritional status, medication, diabetes control and lifestyle. We work with consultants, nurse specialists, GP’s, podiatrists and other Health Care professionals to provide a specialist diabetes service for people who have both Type I and Type II Diabetes.

The service includes:

• DESMOND course for people who have recently been diagnosed with Type II Diabetes
• Antenatal clinc
• Young people’s clinic
• Type I Diabetes carbohydrate counting and insulin dose-adjustment course
• Complex interventions
• At Sunderland Royal we also provide:
• Diabesity clinic
• Lipid clinic
• Retinal screening clinics, where people who are newly diagnosed will be seen by a dietitian who will assess and advise on a healthy diabetic diet.

The service consists of several specialist teams including:

Oncology

We provide a specialist seamless service to adults in South Tyneside with cancer.   

This can be to help build you up for anti-cancer treatment, to support your nutrition throughout/after any treatment or to help improve quality of life. 

We can provide this service as an inpatient, in a Dietetic led Oncology clinic, on the Oncology Haematology Day Unit, via a multi-disciplinary Enteral Feeding Clinic (for those requiring tube feeding) and a domiciliary service for patients who are housebound.

Prescribing Support Service

We provide an outpatient service in the form of clinics, Home Visits and Nursing Home appointments.

It serves those patients in need of dietary advice and additional prescribed nutritional products if they are suffering from disease-related malnutrition.

We also provide training to staff in care homes on assessments, referral and interventions to support the nutritional intake of patients.

We aim to intervene early and prevent weight loss and malnutrition and work with Nursing staff, pharmacists and GPs to ensure appropriate and timely prescriptions are provided. Referral is via GP, consultant or directly from Nursing home staff.

The service consists of several specialist teams including:

Head and Neck Dietitian

The Head and Neck Dietitian will provide assistance and advice concerning eating and drinking, recommending dietary modifications, prescribed supplements and tube feeding.

The Head and Neck Dietitian will see patients undergoing all types of treatment for head and neck cancer including radiotherapy, chemotherapy and/or surgery.

Stroke, Neuro Rehabilitation and Community Nutrition Support Team

Dietitians work within the wider stroke and neuro-rehabilitation teams to assess patients’ nutrition and hydration needs supporting patients who have experienced a stroke, brain injury or any other neurological condition. Conditions include: Cerebral Palsy, Guillain Barre Syndrome, Multiple Sclerosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Parkinson’s Disease and Spinal Cord Injury etc. 

We work closely with Speech and Language therapists to ensure that the advice given is appropriate. We provide follow up for patients through their recovery journey and continue to have input with patients after discharge home from hospital.

Tissue Viability Dietitian

The dietitian provides assessment and treatment to patients and their families/carers that are either admitted with, or develop a pressure sore whilst in hospital.

Nursing Home Team

The team provide a specialist service for residents in care homes within the Sunderland Locality. We assess patients’ nutrition and hydration needs and advise the staff in the care home how best to support their individual patients to optimise their nutrition. 

We also provide training to staff in care homes on assessments, referral and interventions to support the nutritional intake of patients.

Weight Management Team  

The weight management team provide assessment and advice to support patients to work towards achieving a healthy weight and BMI.

The service includes:

• BMI weight management clinics for adults
• Orlistat clinic
• Child weight management clinic
• Bariatric Team
• We are a regional center for bariatric surgery providing surgical weight management services to patients who are clinically obese.
• Dietitians and Dietetic Support Workers assess, advise and support patients who are being considered for bariatric surgery.

Renal Team

Our renal dietitians are involved in the nutritional assessment and care of patients with acute and chronic kidney disease. We offer relevant, practical dietary advice at all stages of kidney disease, tailoring the advice to the individual needs of patients, helping to support patients, families and carers.

Nutritional intervention ranges from specific dietary restrictions e.g. potassium, phosphate, salt, fluid, diabetes, weight management and nutritional support.

The renal dietitians work alongside the consultants, doctors and specialist nurses at Sunderland Royal Hospital, in outpatient clinics, renal unit (including satellite units at Washington and Durham) and with inpatients at Sunderland Royal Hospital.

Contact us
To change or cancel an appointment at:
South Tyneside and Sunderland Royal sites:
0191 541 0101 or via the web at http://chsft.egressforms.com/appointments

For generic enquiries:
South Tyneside:
0191 404 1084
Monday- Friday 08.30 - 16.30

Sunderland:
​​​​​​​0191 569 9013
Monday- Friday 08.30 - 16.30

South Tyneside:
Edythe Brown House
South Tyneside Hospital
Monday- Friday 08.30 - 16.30

Sunderland:
Chester Wing
Entrance 8
Monday- Friday 08.30 - 16.30

• Clinical Director: Mary Spearman
• Directorate Manager: Tim Burdett
• Head of Service: Scott Covington

• NHS Choices: https://www.nhs.uk/
• Change4life: https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/  
• BDA (British Dietetic Association): https://www.bda.uk.com/                                               
• British Heart Foundation: https://www.bhf.org.uk/
• Diabetes UK: https://www.diabetes.org.uk/   
• HCPC: https://www.hcpc-uk.org/