The Athens ONCA Conference

European Nutritional Care Policy Summit 

May 5-6 2025

Launched in 2014, the Optimal Nutritional Care for All (ONCA) campaign is a multi-stakeholder initiative to facilitate greater screening for risk of disease-related malnutrition/undernutrition and nutritional care implementation across Europe.

The campaign supports national professional societies, associations and patient groups in public health and health care in 20 countries to implement nutritional risk screening and optimal nutritional care. The European Nutrition for Health Alliance (ENHA) provides structure, coordinates, inspires and facilitates. ENHA also supports the Malnutrition Awareness Week (MAW) initiatives of ONCA countries to raise awareness and promote better nutritional care.

This year the ONCA Conference took place on 5 & 6 May in the historic city of Athens, Greece, bringing together healthcare professionals, patients, policy makers and industry representatives. The focus for this year’s conference was on advancing holistic health through optimal nutritional care.

Malnutrition and undernutrition affect over 30 million European citizens and place an unacceptable burden on European citizens and health care budgets. Therefore integrating patient-centred nutritional care in health policies can significantly contribute to prevention, better patient outcomes, and improved quality of life. 

The 2025 ONCA conference was co-hosted by the Greek ONCA team, which includes the Hellenic Dietetic Association (HDA), Hellenic Society of Medical/Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (GrESPEN), the Greek patient organisations, the active scientific societies leading in interdisciplinary collaboration and representatives of the Ministry of Health.

Sessions included ‘Making the economic case for reimbursement and dietetic care in Greece’, ‘A holistic approach on nutritional care and Quality of life’ and ‘A holistic approach on nutritional care and Quality of life’. The Greek Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis, joined the conference to provide an overview of the Greek ambitions in Health Innovation and the role of nutrition in care informing that the dietitian title is now protected from 1 May along with the announcement that it is now mandatory to screen for malnutrition in hospitals. András Kulja, Member of the European Parliament's SANT committee, delivered a pre-recorded session on the new EU mandate focusing on prevention. Alison Bate, WHO Athens Office on Quality of Care and Patient Safety delivered a talk on ‘Nutritional Care, Quality and Disease Prevention’. 

The second day of the conference saw an opportunity to have breakout workshops covering a range of topics including 'Opportunities for Member State Actions on Nutritional Care', 'Health Economics: Identifying the True Policy Drivers', and 'Nutritional Education in Medical Schools', along with 'Accelerating Malnutrition Awareness Weeks’s Impact', 'Leveraging One Health to Drive Nutritional Care Policies for Patients' and 'LIFE: The Leading Intestinal Failure Equality Initiative'.

The take-away message from the ONCA Conference was that everyone deserves the support they need to achieve better health outcomes, and therefore it is important to join forces to ensure all patients receive the nutritional care they need and that nutrition is seen as part of the holistic approach to patient care. To do this we need:

1. Multi-stakeholder collaboration: working together to raise awareness of the importance of disease-related malnutrition and advance nutritional care initiatives
2. Patient-centred approach: recognising patients as active partners in shaping nutritional care policies and empowering patients to be advocates, focusing on the patient and not just the disease
3. Holistic integrated nutritional care: where nutritional care is integrated into healthcare systems addressing physical, social and mental health
4. Shared learning across Europe: to instigate changes to policy to ensure equity of provision in the future for everyone who needs nutrition support.

Left to right: Carolyn Wheatley MBE, chair of PINNT; Declan O' Brien, Director General, BSNA; Dr Simon Gabe, BAPEN International Liaison Officer; Emily Walters, BAPEN Malnutrition Officer; Martha Jackson, Medical Nutrition & Policy Manager, BSNA