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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:

KatieMistletoe · 28/12/2011 01:54

Why would a request for a vegetarian diet be more valid if it is for religious reasons?

Because we have equality legislation in this country that means we can't discriminate against people for certain protected characteristics. Of which religion is one. There is no protection for moral choices about not eating meat.

BluddyMoFo · 28/12/2011 01:55

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

sashh · 28/12/2011 03:12

That's bad.

No YANBU, there should be more than one veggi option because there are vegetarians (obviously) but people who are not normally veggi but eat Kosha or Halal may choose to eat veggi when they cannot be sure about the meat.

Try asking for the halal menu - you might find more veggi optios there.

Just one thing, from what you have said about the options have they put you on a high protien or 'build up' diet? That would limit the options.

My experience of hospital food is limited - my last two admissions I was on fluids only and the ones before that I only got to eat after a few days nil by mouth.

You shouldn't need to do this but if the ward has a kitchen (you mentioned sandwiches and toast) could dh bring in a couple of tins of soup / instant noodles etc?

I hope you feel better and get home soon.

SeasonsGripings · 28/12/2011 04:08

YANBU - after having 2 major ops and a 9 pint blood transfusion I was given a cheesy pasta bake - consultant banned me from eating it but no alternative was offered from the kitchen. Dh brought me in soup, after continued abdominal pain consultant decided I needed a 24 hour fast to calm my digestive system down - at the end of the fast I let the nurse know I was hungry and needed food - none available, a packet of crisps and a fizzy drink from the vending machine was all she could offer - I was supposed to be building my strength up and all they could feed me was a packet of bloody crisps. Dh had to bring in food for me at 10 o clock at night - I have never felt so vulnerable.

Jacksmania · 28/12/2011 04:13

BluddyMoFo. Why would all these posters be making this up?

SeasonsGripings · 28/12/2011 04:16

When dd was admitted to hospital we put her down as Asian veggie - she had veggie rice and a fairly ok curry, much better than the alternative. When flying I always ask for Asian veg - it's always better than soggy pasta.

Gargula · 28/12/2011 06:43

BluddyMoFo. I don't think it's that there isn't a veggie option per se, its just it keeps running out as they underestimate how many people want the veggie option.

The last couple of times i've been in hospital (giving birth) the vegetarian options have been great, but you have to get to the canteen really early to get them (there's no food to bed service). It was really depressing being in labour all day, having a baby in neonatal, trying, and failing, to establish bf, and then not having any bloody food!

If it wasn't for my DH I would have gone very hungry.

OP - complain complain complain! They shouldn't be allowed to get away with it.

LtXmasEve · 28/12/2011 07:05

When DD was taken into hosp (age 4) the meal options were pretty terrible too. There was a child across from her (about 8 yrs) who was a veggie and two days running was bought a tuna dish as his evening meal. His mum wasn't in for meal times, so on day 1 we bought him a baked potato from the staff canteen (long story - only available food for DD) and on day 2 DH went and bought him a bagette from the coffee shop.

I told his mum on day 2 before we left, and my DSis (works in hosp) was going to kick up a fuss, but thought that was an awful thing to do to...not many children would have the 'courage' to complain.

ageperfect · 28/12/2011 08:48

BluddyMoFo , you are right.I was in hospital on two different occasions + 2 times given birth (hospital too) and my DP was in hospital.they did have non meat option

TandB · 28/12/2011 08:54

I only had one meal in hospital when I had DS as we got home pretty quickly. But they had "run out" of vegetarian food as well. There were only 2 of us eating in the postnatal ward and we were both vegetarian and finished up with a plate of peas and carrots each!

JockTamsonsBairns · 28/12/2011 09:09

Christ, cheese and potato pie? That's giving me the dry boak thinking about it.

BluddyMoFo - can't see why posters would make this up. To me, it's perfectly feasible to believe that they run out of the veggie option due to underestimating demand.

OP, I really urge you to complain about this once you feel stronger.
Wishing you well.

kickingking · 28/12/2011 09:40

I was in hospital for 4 days having having a baby by elcs. The food was awful. Just toast and butter for breakfast, stale sandwiches in plastic bags for lunch and strange meals like cauliflower cheese and gravy for dinner. Dinner was a toddler sized portion as well.

I am also diabetic and as I was recovering from surgery abd trying to establish a milk supply, I was in need of lots if carbs - which was explained very clearly on my notes. And then ignored by the meal staff. I complained but was told they were contracted and there was nothing the hospital could do

If my mum hadn't bought me in a huge bag of M&S sandwiches, crisps, fruit and cereal bars every day, I think I would have starved to death.

gamerwidow · 28/12/2011 09:50

I agree it is very unusual not to have a vegetarian option available. All the hospitals I've been in or visited have had both a vegetarian and a halal option in addition to the standard menu.

Ask to speak to PALS and make a complaint. I believe it is one of the CQC indicators for dignity that dietary requirements for moral or religious reasons are respected and provided for so it will be taken seriously.

Original poster

madangelhairday · 28/12/2011 10:00

BluddyMoFo - can't understand why you'd think I was making this up

I have enough to be dealing with atm without people saying I'm lying, what would be the point?

I told you what I had been offered, and that on 3 seperate occasions so far I had been told the veggie option was fish. What more can I say?

I had a nasty reaction to my drugs yesterday and today am dehydrated and weak so looking forward to dh bringing some proper food in.

Disgusted at what some of you have had to face too. LtEve that was such a lovely thing to do with the little boy, but shocking on the hospital's part

OP posts:

MildlyNarkyPuffin · 28/12/2011 17:23

You're being an idiot BloodyMoFo. My relative was in for a week. The 'veggie option' was unavailable for most meals. It might exist on paper but there were none left by the time they got to her ward. In the time she was there she had a bowl of vegetable soup and a cheese sandwich. She'd have been happy with a dry baked potato!

entropyglitter · 30/12/2011 18:26

'You're being an idiot BloodyMoFo'

OP - I hope things have improved....

I dont know why they dont just have a baked potato/baguette cart with a range of fillings...

Haziedoll · 30/12/2011 18:32

Yanbu. Food in hospitals is inadequate. When I had ds1 I didn't get fed at all in the 48 hours I was in hospital. My dad was recently in hospital and asked to be discharged early because the meals always arrived when he was away from the ward having tests and nothing was left for him. In the hospital my sister works at they have stopped providing cooked food and only offer sandwiches.

spiderlight · 30/12/2011 18:40

You have my massive massive sympathy. I'm vegetarian and recently had to spend two weeks in hospital with an illness that caused very severe nausea and had already made me lose over a stone. I was brought jacket potatoes with tuna several times, always by a lovely and very apologetic lady who was tied by what was put on her trolley by the bods in the kitchen. I ended up asking for salad/jacket potato and salad/cheese salad sandwiches every single day because that was the only thing they could get right, and I lost another half stone while I was in, despite being on steroids. The lovely lovely trolley lady used to hoard teacakes for me because she knew they were the one thing she had that I actually enjoyed - several times I would come back from x-ray or whatever and find a hot cuppa and two toasted teacakes waiting for me. It was so frustrating not to be offered any sort of choice though. Someone official was supposed to be coming to see me to get my views on it but they never came.

unreasonablemuch · 30/12/2011 18:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius · 30/12/2011 19:42

I think that the problem with hospital catering is that feeding the patients has been taken out of the hands of the nursing staff. When I trained, lunchtime meant the trolley being wheeled onto the ward, and Sister, or the nurse in charge, rolling up her sleeves and serving the meals - and she knew what diets her patients were on, who could and couldn't eat, allergies etc, and dished up accordingly. Meals were taken round by the nursing staff, and we were responsible for making sure that our patients could reach their food, were sitting up comfortably, had cutlery and drink to hand - and if neccessary we fed them or cut up their food so they could feed themselves.

And at the end of each shift we wrote a report on the patients we were responsible for - and an important part of that was noting that they'd eaten properly and had had enough to drink. Now that meals are delivered and cleared away by catering staff, I have absolutely no idea how the nurses are supposed to make sure that all their patients get enough to hold body and soul together to eat.

A member of my family had major surgery, and had to spend a number of days in hospital afterwards recuperating. One day the catering assistant giving out the meals opened the door of the 6-bed ward she was in, announced 'all nil by mouth' and left - NONE of them were nil by mouth but none of them were in any state to chase her (all having had major ops). Luckily a senior doctor came in, and my relative told them what had happened, and they dragged the catering trolley back so they could all get a meal.

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