VISITING time for elderly patients at York Hospital has been cut down - so they can be left to eat in peace.

This month the hospital began trialling a pilot scheme to give older patients a quiet window in the afternoons when they can eat their evening meal without interruption.

Friends and relatives have in the past been able to visit patients between 3pm and 8pm. But now they are being asked to avoid certain wards between 4.30pm and 6.30pm.

Director of nursing Mike Proctor said the scheme was being trialled in five wards because of national fears large numbers of patients leaving hospital were malnourished.

York was not thought to be the only hospital trying out the idea, he said.

"This is not an arbitrary cutting of visiting times - it's about trying to make meals important for patients," he said.

"Forty per cent of long-stay patients leave hospital malnourished.

"It's not natural for patients to be surrounded by people while they're eating. We're trying to protect mealtimes.

"When patients are having their meals they should be left alone to get on with it and enjoy it."

But he acknowledged the trial, which began on December 5, had suffered some "teething problems" after one relative complained he had been asked to leave after travelling a long way to visit an elderly patient.

"We wouldn't expect for every patient's relative who has come from miles around to be turfed out," he said. "It would be wrong to operate a complete blanket rule about it. We would want to have a situation where the vast majority of patients have their meal in peace."

The "Protected Mealtimes" scheme is being supported by the Government's Department of Health.

A spokesman said: "This aims to ensure that the environment on wards at mealtimes is conducive to patients eating and enjoying their food, and also helps ensure that nursing and other staff can devote sufficient time to helping patients eat where help is needed, and monitoring food intake."

Updated: 09:26 Tuesday, December 20, 2005