Patients are too often put on artificial feeding systems in hospitals to save time or because of an overly cautious approach, concludes a report published this week.

Experts are recommending that tube feeding of patients should be adopted only as a last resort. More specialist nutrition teams are needed to advise on the most appropriate way to meet patients’ nutrition needs, they say.

The group of experts has recommended good practice guidelines for doctors in response to concerns about the lack of consensus, particularly among clinicians, about when artificial nutrition and hydration is appropriate.

The guidance has been produced by a working party for the Royal College of Physicians and the British …