Should people in hospital supply thier own food.

[ICanSeeTheSun]

Another thread reminded me that when my Ff'd niece was in hospital my sister had to bring all her food in, as in her formula she was 5 months and not at that point had her first taste of solids.

Now based on this, where a patient is a baby and the hospital don't fund thier food should the NHS fund an adult to eat.

FFS. Don't be ridiculous.

What expat said

What is the point of your question? Have you ever been in a hospital in a country where they don't feed the patients? Believe me, any possible savings to the NHS would be more than cancelled out by the chaos caused by a rota of friends and relatives traipsing in and out of wards carrying tupperware boxes, dropping food on the floor, bringing unsuitable things which upset the patients' recovery, upsetting each other's families with "funny smelling food" etc etc. And what about the many people in this country whose families wouldn't be able to visit them at least three times a day to bring food?
Can't believe I even bothered to type all that out - that has to be one of the stupidest OPs I've ever seen.

Hospitals ask parents to bring in their own nappies too. At the time of writing, pull ups are being issued free to the incontinent elderly patients. Is that wrong also?

YABU, what a ridiculous, impractical idea.

I expect your sister was with your niece most of the time so was able to bring in formula to give her. What would you expect an elderly person with few visitors to do? How could they bring in their own food if in hospital for more than a few days? They can't just pop out to the local shop and get a ready meal. Ridiculous!

No, I don't think they should.

I'd rather see people be charged for what they want to eat in hospital and a system where they have a range of food choices and the ability to order and pay for food for visiting relatives/friends so they can eat with them if they want to.

People who receive certain benefits could continue to get free food in the way they already do, and I think it would improve the quality of food for everyone if it was charged at a reasonable rate.

DS1 was given formula as an inpatient.

DS2 was bf and I was given childrens hospital meals

My sister is lucky as she has a great support network, there was many family members who made sure milk,nappies, clean clothes, food, snack and drinks was brought in.

I'd rather see people be charged for what they want to eat in hospital and a system where they have a range of food choices and the ability to order and pay for food for visiting relatives/friends so they can eat with them if they want to.

They can WooWoo - They can go to the hospital canteen.

It's not quite 'bring your own food' but at our local general they put plain biscuits and light snacks such as breakfast bars on your bag list, and are advised to bring things like hot water mix porridge and pot noodles.
And our hospital is one of the few that cooks on site.

Sorry, I was referring to the relatives/friends part of your post.

Not if they are confined to a bed or are too immobile to get themselves around a huge hospital building.

X post!

'I'd rather see people be charged for what they want to eat in hospital and a system where they have a range of food choices and the ability to order and pay for food for visiting relatives/friends so they can eat with them if they want to.'

That's almost as ridiculous as the OP. It's a hospital, not a fucking restaurant, which visiting relatives and friends are free to patronise during their visit. You can even use JustEat or HungryHouse and have a restaurant deliver the food of your visitor's or relative's choice to the door of the hospital.

That would only work if all rooms were en suite and spacious.

You couldn't do that on the wards as they are currently set up. An IV stand gets in the way.

Can you imagine the stress of that on the nursing staff? Visitors are already demanding. I bet they would be buzzing the nurse to pass them the salt & pepper.

In a lot of countries that is a already a reality. My father had an extended stay in a 2nd world hospital following a near death experience. All his non medical needs, foods, toileting etc (i believe) were met by his wife and her family.

Do we want a similar model in this country ? Personally I wouldn't object if I had a planned admission, eg on the post natal ward.

However, for the vast majority, the frail, elderly and vulnerable it would be a bloody nightmare.

I've heard of people in other countries who go into hospital and friends/family bring all the food (and I think bed linen and towels). It would work well in a small community hospital where the patient has a good support network. I can't see it working in general though. Nice idea if everyone had that back up.

'My sister is lucky as she has a great support network, there was many family members who made sure milk,nappies, clean clothes, food, snack and drinks was brought in.'

And? Our nearest hospital is quite far away, expensive to get to and serves an enormous geographical area. Many adults do not have family members to bring stuff in readily.

And yy, to what Bluestocking said, have you ever been in a country where patients have to have their own food brought in? It's a shambles.

I had to provide food for my child in hospital recently. They did provide it, but it was appalling, unhealthy, and they kept leaving him off the list and/or forgetting to bring him any. So I had stuff brought in and heated it up in the parents kitchen.
Meh, we had bigger stuff to worry about than the food.

Never been abroad.

Perhaps the NHS should then just fund it for babies to be fed in hospital.

The milk room, even though the nurses tried hard to keep the mess down was always messy.

I had to supply it for my child, too, grockle, when she was in for months with cancer. It stopped being meh after a few months. Her nutrition became a big thing to worry about, given her falling weight.

But then after a while she didn't eat at all and died.

Absolutely not. YABU.

We were hours away from home, so excepting a couple of friends, I had to go out and get what she needed and wanted on my own. And food for myself. I lost over 2st, and I wasn't fat when she went in.