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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

to expect to be offered a vegetarian option...

95 replies

madangelhairday · 27/12/2011 12:32

..in hospital?

Been in since last Tuesday (with small break for Christmas Day :)) and this is the third time I have been offered; for example: Chicken stew, Turkey salad or Tuna Pasta. What's the veggie option? Tuna Pasta. - No, that's fish. -Well, that's the vegetarian option. - Er, no.

I don't really have the wherewithal to fight. And don't feel too hungry so can't be bothered too much, but this is with the doctors telling me I need to build myself up, get some good nutritional food down me etc. Even when there is a veggie option, the nutritional value has not been particularly high

Now, mostly I have managed to persuade someone to make me a little sandwich. But it's the fighting for it I just feel too tired for.

AIBU to think veggie food should be on offer and should be nutritious?

If so, what should I do?

OP posts:

SolidGoldStockingFilla · 27/12/2011 13:32

I really did think that hospitals were legally obliged to provide a vegetarian option, and I can't see why they don't. TBH though I am a total omnivore it would seem more sensible for all hospital food to be vegetarian with meat-based meals as the 'unusual' option, perhaps for patients with nut allergies or iron deficiencies.

YonderRevoltingPeasantWhoIsHe · 27/12/2011 13:37

YANBU at all.

I was in hospital recently and they had also run out of veggie options by the time they got to me. I am not veggie but the rest of it was rank so I skipped a couple of meals till DP could bring me some food after work.

I do not understand why the default setting for NHS meals seems to be sub-Yates's-Wine-Lodge pub-style meals. I was in a ward full of people who had just had major surgery of one kind or another (kidney stuff) and they were giving us roast chicken with gravy and mashed. It made me sick just to look at it; one of the doctors very kindly took it away before I was ill. We were all recovering from GAs, on OraMorph and similarly strong painkillers.... Really, you just want toast/ crackers or something really plain and basic. All the people who had been in there a while had packets of Ryvita or similar.

It seems totally counter-intuitive to give people heavy, rich food when they are ill, instead of basic nutritious stuff.

SilentBoob · 27/12/2011 13:40

When I was last in hospital all the veggie options were yellow food.

HarrietJoHoHoHones · 27/12/2011 13:41

When I was in last year dh sustained me with big bags of peppers/toms/carrots chopped up & brought in. I could get potatoes but there was no veg served with it. One of the MWs came inwhen ihad jacket pot & cheese and she commented on having had the same but with salad in the canteen and was surprised we didn't get it offered on the ward

mummymccar · 27/12/2011 15:44

Are you at UHW by any chance? This happened to me earlier in the year too - very snotty man got angry when I refused the 'vegetarian' tuna he was offering. In the end a woman in the bed opposite me shouted at him until he brought me some toast (nothing on it though because he suddenly decided that vegetarian meant vegan and I couldn't get through to him at all) Luckily I was only in for two days with one overnight but I did worry about those staying for longer.
Make a complaint.
Hope you feel better soon!

CuriousMama · 27/12/2011 15:51

That is appalling!! Please do complain. And contact PALs. Oh I'm so angry for you.

YonderRevoltingPeasantWhoIsHe · 27/12/2011 15:52

mummy that is horrible. I was in (not UHW) from Mon morning till Tues night and didn't eat anything for those 2 days. They threatened to keep me in till Weds morning but I was feeling light-headed by that point so insisted on being discharged!

piellabakewell · 27/12/2011 16:05

I had a longish stay after having DD1, now 14, and was able to get vegetarian food without any difficulties. However, of my 2 hot meals each day, at least one was curry, because many of the vegetarians in this area are vegetarian for cultural/religious reasons. I have never liked curry or anything spicy.

The day I was discharged (she was 6 days old by then) the dr asked me if I had opened my bowels since delivery. I pointed at the bowl of Rice Krispies and slice of white bread that had been delivered for my breakfast and said 'What do you think?'

When I weighed myself a week after she was born, I had lost exactly 2 stone in only a week...I wonder how much of that can be attributed to hospital food!

BastedTurkey · 27/12/2011 16:06

YANBU

and as for the fish = veggie option FFS

OberonTheHopeful · 27/12/2011 16:17

YANB at all U.

I've been fortunate enough not to need an overnight hospital stay as an adult, but I'm a bit aghast that veggie options aren't routinely available.

zipzap · 27/12/2011 16:36

Why not send a letter to James Martin the tv chef...

He was on the one show just before Xmas following up on a tv programme/series he'd done earlier in the year about improving hospital food. they'd had good results at the hospital he'd been involved with (even simple things like stopping with packet soup and making proper home made nutritious soup from real veg - which eas cheaper and healthier - worrying that this was a radical idea!)

Anyhow, he was saying on the programme that there are only a handful of hospitals in the uk where the catering is good like this. Apparently prince Charles has taken an interest and invited people from these few good hospital caterers along for an industry think workshop to see how they can distil their wisdom and get it into other hospitals. And it's an ongoing working group so they might be quite interested in the definition of veggie the hospital are using. You can just see that somewhere some idiot jobsworth has decreed that fish counts as veggie and therefore they tick the 'veggie option provided' box because they are providing something that they call veggie even though it's not iyswim.

Not sure if it was a bbc1 programme or a mini series within the one show but the one show were definitely involved at Xmas as another point of contact.

WilsonFrickett · 27/12/2011 16:41

YANBU, not at all. When I was in with DS I got (TMI warning) a bit backed up and the midwife was extremely snarky with me. Till I pointed out I'd been in for two days exactly and had consumed nothing with fibre in it. I clearly remember one veggie 'lasagne' just being cheese with a tomato sauce . I do remember that the meaty food wasn't any better, having said that. I just don't get why institutional food in this country is just so shit.

Original poster

madangelhairday · 27/12/2011 17:35

zipzap sounds interesting, when I have some energy I may well do that.

Sorry to hear about others who have struggled with this. It's so wrong.

No not at UHW. In the West Midlands.

I have refused the meal tonight, because although they had a veggie option it was exactly the same option as last night, cheese and potato pie, and it was dire - salty yellow mess and I think I'd throw up if I looked at it. Ugh. DH is going out to find something from Tesco or similar.

If I can get to speak to the dietician I will explain it all, after all this is a CF ward and nutrition is so important, I'm hoping that the veggie CF sufferers are given more thought than I have been despite suffering from a similar condition.

Thanks for all your support though - and yes I would agree that it is surely illegal not to serve a veggie option.

OP posts:

BandOMothers · 27/12/2011 17:44

God that's awful! Agree..get DH to contact PALS in there..he can ask the nurse or receptionist how...they will sort this out. He will need to bring you food too though...in addition to what's on offer as it is simply not enough....

stripeyZ · 27/12/2011 17:57

Can you ask them to get you a jacket spud/veggie option from the canteen if they can't provide for you? Not that it usually tastes any better but may give you more options.

DorisIsMerryOnChristmasSprits · 27/12/2011 18:10

Sadly madangelbadhairday although lip service is given to diet for CF partients when DD has been in (fingers crossed touching wood) not for ages now, she gets the same as everyone else i.e. piss poor portions of limp soggy cold chips and chicken nuggets. bleuuurrrggh. Fortunately for us a new macdonalds has opened near the hopsital and for her that would be a healthly (one of the very few benefits of a CF diet!!).

Get well soon

Original poster

madangelhairday · 27/12/2011 18:35

There's a McD's just round the corner from this hospital too Doris - a lot of this ward go off there for meals! I couldn't stomach it today or I'd have sent dh there, but may well be tempted later in the week when my IVs have settled a bit.

Hope your dd stays well and glad she has stayed out of the hospital for a while :)

OP posts:

Earthymama · 27/12/2011 18:44

When I was in hospital several years ago the woman bringing the food said she would kindly make me a jacket potato as there was no veggie option.
So she did. She brought me a potato the size of a baby's head. On a plate. With nothing else. Not cheese, not beans, not a pat of butter. I still smile when I think of it, she was so outraged when I said I didn't really feel like eating it dry and cold. It was HUGE!
I discharged myself early and went home to recover.
I would love to be involved in catering in hospitals, real fresh food would be so healing.

WilsonFrickett · 27/12/2011 19:04

On what planet is a cheese and potato pie acceptable food for people who are ill? It's barely acceptable for people who are hungover!

YonderRevoltingPeasantWhoIsHe · 27/12/2011 19:11

Wilson yes indeed. I was in hospital in the Southwest several times this summer and one day, these were the options (bearing in mind this was a ward for people who had had renal and vascular surgery, so pretty serious stuff):

fish pie
roast chicken and mashed potatoes
omelette with potato and something else nasty in
dessert (for lunch!! why?) rhubarb crumble with custard.

How many people want any of that hours after surgery or when they are on heavy painkillers? What about clear soup and crackers? Toast? A basic salad?

I was on a ward of 4 women and none of us ate the food. The long-termers had people bringing them food and I starved till I could get home. Wtf is the point???

NettoHoHoHoSuperstar · 27/12/2011 19:40

When I was in HDU in one hospital last year they served me macaroni cheese (no choice), fine you might think, but the sauce was watery and the pasta so overcooked it had broken up, and then it had gravy poured on it.
WTAF?

Another hospital I didn't eat anything at all for 5 days and they didn't notice, and the other hospital ( I have toured the hospitals round here!), served me pasta bolognese with a side of boiled potatoes, and then cake and custard that tasted like paper.

Oh and every piece of 'meat' I put in my mouth was actually flabby fat or gristle, and the soups are served in what looks like a rubber potty.

And they wonder why I have a habit of resisting going into hospital, and then discharging myself.

willowstar · 27/12/2011 19:48

Must depend on where you live. When I was in my local hospital having my daughter 2 years ago I was suprised and impressed by the veggie meals, all were edible and as I do all the cooking at home, I was really pleased to be given 2 hot meals a day that I could enjoy.

If you have the energy and time you should speak to PALS, it is the kind of thing that they are there for.

iklboonkey · 27/12/2011 19:48

Absolutely true story when I was in hospital after having DS.
Lady went to the canteen for lunch and asked what the vegetarian option was.
Canteen lady said 'Sorry love, we've run out of the vegetarian option. I've got halal chicken curry if you want that?'

Scorpette · 27/12/2011 20:30

I have food allergies and had to be induced with DS due to pre-eclampsia and it was all a bit traumatic afterwards with me v poorly and him in NNU, so had a longish stay in hospital. Despite a dietitian spending over an hour with me the day I was induced going through my allergies and the options (and refusing to let me eat the food DP had brought in for me whilst we talked, despite me having been awake for 5 hrs without a crumb passing my lips, cheers), the first meal provided for me was cheese and potato pie. My allergies? Wheat and dairy. FACEPALM.

Luckily, the food staff always had chips ready for lunch and dinner, even though chips were only officially available twice a week. I think they realised how shit everything else was. Not keen on chips anymore...

NettoHoHoHoSuperstar · 27/12/2011 20:36

That's the thing though Willowstar, when you're in hospital, and ill, the last thing you feel able to do is complain about the food.

And I'm in with brittle asthma so I find it difficult to talk anyway.

The best stay I had was definitely the one when I didn't eat, which speaks volumes about the state of the food.

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