Your first contact will usually be with the feeding company specialist nurse advisor who may arrange to visit you within five working days of discharge from hospital. The feeding company specialist nurse advisor will inform the dietitian what you discussed during the consultation and the dietitian will then arrange to assess you. After this, a member of the team will review your progress as required, this could be by visiting you at home or by telephone.  We can also use text messaging, video call or email as a way of communicating with you if you prefer.

Please note: If your initial assessment is in person it may last between 60 to 90 minutes. Future visits will usually be shorter. Also, we may need to rearrange your appointment at short notice if an emergency arises.

By agreeing to be seen by the HEF team we will assume that you are consenting to treatment from us. We will always discuss any treatment with you and agree on an appropriate treatment plan to best suit your needs.

Things we will monitor and discuss with you:

• Feeding regimen through your tube
• Weight
• Any food or fluid taken by mouth
• Bowel habits
• Lifestyle changes
• Tube and feeding equipment support
• Your stoma site (skin surrounding your tube)

To help us monitor any treatment it may also be useful for us to take a photograph of your stoma site.  We will ask for your consent before doing this.

Information gathered during your consultation will usually be put into a report. This will be entered into a secure computer system that many Leeds GP’s use. Other community based services that are involved in your care may also share access to this information.

Please inform us if you do not wish for your information to be shared with other healthcare professionals.

After a review, your next planned visit will be recorded on the report or verbally agreed with you. A member of the team will contact you in the days beforehand to arrange a date and time that is convenient for you.

It is important to contact us as soon as you become aware of any problems or changes relating to:

• Your feed
• Your feeding tube
• Your stoma site
• Being admitted to hospital, please ask someone to let us know
• Being discharged from hospital: We will see you at your next scheduled appointment unless your hospital dietitian contacts us to advise that you need to be seen before this.

Please contact us if you feel that you need to be seen sooner than your next scheduled appointment.

You can contact us by:

• Phone: 0113 8430892 (Please leave a message on our answer machine with your name, contact number and reason for your call.)
• Email : efadminleedscommunity@nhs.net

Please be aware that email is not a secure means of communication. If you require a secure means of communication or need to speak to someone urgently, please contact us by telephone.

Answer machine messages and emails are checked regularly during office hours and someone will get back to you as soon as possible.

Our service is available Monday to Friday (except bank holidays) from 8:30am to 4pm.

Out of hours

If you need help outside of the HEF team office hours, please call Nutricia out of hours help line on 0800 093 3672 for telephone advice and support from specialist nurse advisors.

If you have caring responsibilities for a family member or friend, such as helping with finances, personal care and domestic tasks, we appreciate that this can be stressful at times. If you would like some information or support please contact Carers Leeds Advice Line on 0113 380 4305 and have a look at the Carers Leeds website.

If you have a complaint , concern, comment or compliment, please let us know by speaking to a member of staff at your health centre, clinic or home. You can also contact the Patient Experience team:

• Phone: 0113 220 8585
• Email: lch.pet@nhs.net
• Opening hours: 9:30am to 4:30pm from Monday to Friday

For healthcare professionals

If you are healthcare professional please visit the Nutricia UK.

A questionnaire was sent out (to a group of patient’s) requesting feedback relating to the home enteral feeding dietetic service they received during lockdown and, if lockdown were to happen again, how we could improve.

Feedback from a sample of home enteral feeding dietetic service patients has been collated, following March 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, to help guide service improvements.
Response rate: 30%

Things we do well

“Excellent service during COVID-19”

“A Dietitian has been in regular contact  by phone. This works well for me”

“I think the service has still been accessible and my needs met throughout the pandemic”

“Nothing needs to change if it happens again. The care has still been first class”

“Excellent considering the current situation”

Things we need to improve

“Only drawback has been the inability to get weighed. I think I am losing weight but  I have no way of knowing”

You said:

• that you would like to have your weight measured
• that you wanted to be contacted by a particular method
• that you require ongoing support from the enteral nurses
• the support has still been first class and I have never felt alone or distressed

We did:

• We are making hoist scales available so that patients can be weighed at home
• We continue to contact patients by their preferred contact method, either phone, video consultations, email or text messages
• The enteral nurses have continued to provide remote and in person support for all HEF patients “I ring if I need help and the nurses are very good and have always sorted my problems out”

Continuing to listen to you. From 2021, we are still keen to hear your views and will continue to share them on this website.

Please use QR code to have your say:

You can also use the feedback form