NHS to stop offering weatabix for breakfast in hospital

[ladybird69]

I just wondered what others experienced in hospital recently. I was in hospital for 3 days and was never offered breakfast just had lunch and supper that we ticked boxes on menu for. I never knew that they did breakfast, no wonder I was starving.

Wherever l have worked then it’s been fruit, cereal (cornflakes, porridge, muesli, rice krispies, fruit n fibre) or toast (white or brown) for breakfast. Maybe a cooked breakfast one weekend day if you are lucky

It's the job of the nurses to do everything these days, even anticipate a grown adult not asking a question about breakfast.

Options would be egg - scrambled, omlette? Poached fish? Sausages with a decent meat content, just plain would be fine. Some sugarless, full fat yoghurt? A high protein/fat shake of some kind? I usually just skip breakfast but it isnt an option for most.

Most hospitals won't have the facility to offer cooked breakfasts. That's why it's simple things like toast and cereal, because they can be stored on each ward and given out by the housekeepers or HCA in the morning. They also don't have the facilities to store yoghurts (that noone ever wants to eat anyway), or shakes (that you would get funny looks if you offered here). At the end of the day there's nothing wrong with cereal and toast for breakfast, it's something that is easily stored, easily made and most patients will eat it. In a struggling NHS we have to cut back and having a breakfast of cereal and/or toast isn't going to harm anyone it just might not be to some people's tastes.

Part of the problem is that hospital catering services are outsourced so much now. Everything arrives on a truck to be heated up so a lot of kitchens don't actually have the facilities to make even simple dishes from scratch anymore.

I work in mental health and our patients are lucky that all the food is still cooked on site so eggs in various guises are available at breakfast. Part of our cost cutting duscussed outsourcing the catering but that was put on the back burner becasue it would mean ripping out half the kitchens to put the heating equipment in.

We are about to start offering croissants and cooked things as well as toast and cereal. It's going to be an absolute nightmare to manage!

Parents will only get toast.

Everything arrives on a truck to be heated up so a lot of kitchens don't actually have the facilities to make even simple dishes from scratch anymore.

Or the staff. I mean, it's not a restaurant and they are not chefs (or KPs or waiters).

When my son was in hospital you had to go get breakfast from a trolley in the corridor. The options were fruit, toast with butter or jam, cornflakes and Rice Krispies.

When I was in hospital I got no food at all because they couldn’t cater for allergies without 24 hours notice. If I’d known I was going to be rushed in for surgery I’d have called them the previous day

That's appalling and really should be taken further. In my hospital we just put a quick phone call down to the kitchen and something is brought up. We have gluten and dairy free, peanut free, halal, vegan meals etc and there's always something we can come up with for someone who's allergic to other things

I got rice krispies when I was in hospital for jaw surgery. Unfortunately post surgery I couldn't open my mouth very wide so most of them ended up in the bed....

I was in hospital recently. "Dinner" in MAU was a sandwich and a cup of tea.
Post surgery (36 hours after the hospital had last provided me with food - thank god I had my own supplies) breakfast was two slices of toast and jam with tea, or cereal. Lunch turned out to have no vegetarian options (no one had ever asked about my dietary requirements and it had never reached the forefront of my mind), but thankfully as they were scratching their head wondering what to do my discharge paperwork arrived and I escaped.

Pretty grim. Take your own supplies / have them brought to you if you possibly can.

PS if I was in any longer I would have ordered Deliveroo for dinner, delivered to my bedside - the nurses said you could(!)

Yeah we don't stop takeaways coming to the ward here either. It's not a prison so get what you want.

Although I do call the people out who are rolling around the bed in pain the next day and saying to the surgeons that they've not even been able to tolerate water... when I'm actual fact they had a pizza and a full 2L bottle of pepsi

I arrived on the ward on Thursday afternoon and was told the previous occupant of my bed ordered mince and dumplings for tonight, here you go. I said I can’t eat gluten? They said you can order a gluten free meal for tomorrow night but tonight the ordered meal for this bed is mince and dumplings. This was shortly after I woke up from emergency surgery feeling faint and hungry because I hadn’t eaten for 24 hours. DH had to fetch a takeaway, if he wasn’t there I suppose I’d have just starved. And he had to fetch vending machine chocolate for breakfast the following day because it was just a flat NO - the options are bread or cereal and there’s no gluten free option.

I expect the next occupant after me had to eat the gluten free dinner I’d ordered the day before I was discharged. This must be a common problem if they expect every new patient to eat what was ordered the day before by the previous occupant? Regardless of whether they’re veggie, vegan, allergic, etc.

We not allowed toast in my local nhs hospital
It's only horrible cereals and actually the portion is tiny even for me who weighs 44 kg when not pregnant

This 24 hour meal ordering baffles me. Ours are ordered a couple of hours before every meal.

I find it absolutely shocking that a HOSPITAL doesn't cater for people who have health conditions that mean they can't eat certain foods. You know, for their health.

Wow that's really bad if allergies aren't being properly catered for - that's a pretty important medical need!

The trust I work for has a whole trolly full of every cereal you can think of, plus fruit, yoghurts, toast, fresh juice. I am really surprised you were not given any, unless you were Nil By Mouth?

Cereal isn’t food??? My midwife told me to eat Special K because it’s loaded with folic acid and iron.
I can see a day when patients will have to bring their own food or have relatives bring it in, if you don’t have relatives/friends you will go hungry.

Years ago used to get toast or croissant along with a bowl of cereal. Now it's just either or.

I’m gluten free. Was in for five days after emergency surgery. Good job I wasn’t hungry because the best they could do was nothing most days. One night I got three pots of synthetic ice cream for dinner.

This reminds me of when I was in hospital the night I gave birth to DD. The next morning when the breakfast trolley came round I was offered toast or cereal. I was absolutely STARVING and so asked if I could have both. "No it's one or the other"