Elderly patients in hospital are at risk of becoming malnourished because nurses do not have enough time to help with feeding, Age Concern said on Tuesday.

Launching a campaign to raise awareness about the problem, the charity said six out of 10 older patients suffered malnourishment or declining health while in hospital.

Age Concern said malnutrition was estimated to cost the health service some 7.3 billion pounds per year because malnourished patients stay in hospital longer, are three times more likely to develop complications during surgery and have a higher mortality rate.

“Hospitals are in danger of becoming bad for the health of older people,” said Age Concern director general Gordon Lishman.

“The majority of older patients are being denied some of the basic care they need, leaving hundreds of thousands of older patients malnourished.

“It is shocking that the dignity of patients is being overlooked, and that Age Concern has to run a campaign to fight for the implementation of such simple measures.”

Age Concern, who surveyed 500 nurses, said nine out of 10 did not always have enough time to help patients who needed assistance with meals and said, as a result, patients over 80 had a five times higher prevalence of malnutrition than those under the age of 50.

Pauline Ford, a Royal College of Nursing adviser for older people, said the survey showed how serious the problem of understaffing in many hospitals had become and how, for many nurses, “time has become a luxury”.

“It is unacceptable if patients are not getting the help they need,” she said.

“Nurses desperately want to be able to give the standards of care they were trained to give, but need the support and resources to do so. Most importantly they need to be given the time to care.”

Health Minister Caroline Flint told BBC Radio she was aware there was a problem in some hospitals but stressed that improvements had already been made across the service.

“It’s clearly the case that some people are not getting the service that they deserve,” she said. “We already had planned, before this report, a summit in the Autumn to look at how these policies are being embedded.

“One of the demands made on government was to give back authority to nursing staff. That’s why we have 3,000 matrons who amongst their responsibilities are to ensure nutritional needs are attended to, hygiene needs but also dignity of patients.

“Food, care, sensitivity, treating people with dignity are as important as the treatments they’re receiving, the operations that are being undertaken and their general welfare.”

With its “Hungry to be Heard” campaign, the charity called on hospitals to introduce protected mealtimes where nurses focus just on feeding patients.