Hospital food: AIBU?

[IrenetheQuaint]

My 75-year-old father is in hospital - one of the best hospitals in the country - with unexplained breathing difficulties. He is not at all fussy and will generally eat anything put in front of him... but he finds the hospital food disgusting to the point of being almost inedible. I was briefly in the same hospital 15 years ago and found the same thing.

There are a few shops and cafes in the entrance bit but he is on oxygen and can't get to them. Fortunately my brother lives nearby and has managed to bring him some food in (I live 2 hours away and have a stinking cold so can't get there myself). But what about people who have no families nearby, or who can't afford to go to M&S etc two or three times a day?

How can the medical care be so good but the food so bad? If airlines can supply basic but perfectly edible food in complicated circumstances then why can't hospitals?? Good healthy food is an essential part of recovery from illness... it's appalling that the NHS can't supply this (or at least, not at this large and internationally respected hospital).

I know it costs money, but couldn't they bring in a scheme where patients contributed to food costs, with subsidies for those who can't afford it. Even a voluntary donation of £5 per person per day would surely enable a massive improvement in the service? I can't believe other Western countries are so rubbish in this respect?

[AtleastitsnotMonday]

adaisychain I too have shared that experience and couldn't agree more. It was dreadful and that's not the AN speaking! All veg was limp and cooked to death, quite often the food was burnt or dried out. What made it even worse was the presentation, the (compulsory) puddings all came in what looked like plastic dog bowls.

[StStrattersOfMN]

Restaurant was closed Christmas Day. I had vegetables for lunch, and a piece of toast and some salad for dinner. Fortunately, DD2's BF's parents had brought her in to visit the day before, and she had brought mince pies for me. There was zero provision for anything other than a turkey Christmas lunch, no alternative, no way of ordering anything else.

[harasas]

I work in a hospital and have worked all over Christmas, including today, and obviously every trust varies but the food has been nothing less than delicious. And the Christmas dinner and other hot food I have got from the restaurant is the same as they serve to the patients.
I am very grateful that it's so good where I work. It must be miserable to be an inpatient with inedible food.

[Thumbcat]

When I was in after having DS they gave me a salad. It was a large plate of iceberg lettuce with a couple of spoonfuls of cottage cheese in the middle. Absolutely nothing else to it.

[RichardBucket]

My only experience, thankfully, was about 10 years ago on a children's ward. The food was perfectly edible but so, so unhealthy. Every single day, dinner was something with chips - burger, hot dog, pizza, etc. Every day. I vividly remember the burgers sitting in a tray filled to the brim with grease.

My mum bought me dinner from the hospital cafe.

[adaisychain]

6 months on an eating disorders unit attached to an NHS hospital did nothing to mend my relationship with food. If I ever see powdered mash potato served with mystery meat again...

[Noofly]

When I was in having DC I spent most of the time absolutely starving. DH had to keep bringing in food for me, I was so so hungry.

However, I'm just out of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary having had my gallbladder removed and being actually sick this time round, I thought the food was perfectly fine. I had a bowl of porridge and toast with butter and jam for breakfast and soup and a roast beef with coleslaw sandwich for lunch. Dinner was a choice of 3 hot meals plus sides, choice of juices and dessert. I don't drink tea but there were regular tea rounds and I had a jug of water on my table that was refreshed whenever I wanted.

I do suspect that if I'd been in again having another child that I wouldn't have been happy with the offerings, but with next to no appetite and only wanting bland food (and having not been allowed to eat or drink for 48 hours!), it was what I needed.

[catwoman0815]

I was in twice with the DC. food was general: fish fingers, chicken Kiev's/nuggets, chips, pasta and a few sad vegetables. drink was cordial.

all processed crap, hardly anything fresh and nutritious. We were only in a few days so it wasn't really a problem but I really felt for the parents of children with long term hospital stays. Often finances are extremly stretched for these families and paying £5/day wouldn't really be an option.

[PinkFondantFancy]

*pay a charge

[PinkFondantFancy]

I don't know what to think on this really. To the poster further upthread that said "it's beige because better they eat something than nothing" - actually I disagree. Those kids are in there for months on end and the food has no nutritional value, just empty calories. It's appalling.

I wouldn't be willing to pay a change for better hospital food but in reality I ended up paying at least that much a day supplementing my child's food. Having said that, in my local hospital the food is even worse if that's actually possible - even the chips were inedible. Gross.

Frustrating because it's clear from the thread that it is actually possible to provide passable food in hospital.

[McHammersTrousers]

It's not the best is it? I was offered a sandwich after giving birth to my DD and I can honestly say it was the worst cheese sandwich in existence, but I was ravenous so ate it anyway. It was drier than the Sahara and I had to have a sip of water with each mouthful. I had a warm yoghurt for dessert. Vile.

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

I played the game 'guess what that is' when I had my son and was never a winner. It truly was disgusting food.

[Adarajames]

People have died from malnutrition in hospital - says it all really

[Davros]

I've been in our local hospital a lot. The food is pretty good but repetitive. James Martin revamped it a few years ago and they've sustained it. It was awful 10+ years ago

[ZebraOwl]

Stratters

You should totally go back to ballet Just For Fun

My neighbour started doing it at 60 because I love it so much & reassured her that she'd not have to twit about in a leotard (unless she wanted to) & that people of all ages & sizes do recreational ballet. It is fab for building bone-mass & the fact it is indoors & the intensity builds slowly means it is v asthma-friendly. (Although petit allegro makes me want to die... but some of that is the cardiacWEIRD rather than my grumpty lungs.)

Adult ballet has turned into A Big Thing pretty much everywhere there is ballet, so you almost certainly have a class near you... for me it is vital in the ongoing battle to keep my wheelchair for occasional use only (leaving the spinal stenosis out of it, obviously, nothing I can do there but hope for the best...) but I do absolutely love it & it also lets me do something with music now my wonky joints have stopped the instrumental voice & I can't sing any more (speech therapy got me speaking again, though my speech gets a bit wobbly when tired - my almost-3-octaves soprano voice that I can now ALMOST accept was actually-really a very good one... that is gone, and has been for almost 10 years now... but I still miss it, which is v silly & self-indulgent of me, I know - not like I was going to make a career out of it, but I didn't realise how much I sang until I was silenced...).

So yes, yay for ballet & you should totally go forth & dance if you want to.

Erm. Dance while eating some NHS food?

[Titsalinabumsquash]

My DS has 2 week stays every 3 months in our local hospital, he has toast with butter and jam for breakfast and then chicken nuggets, chips and beans for lunch and dinner every single day unless I take him to the cafe or bring him food. He's not at all fussy with food but every time he's ordered a curry it a roast etc it's been gross.
However, when we're at the specialist hospital in London the food is great, he gets a huge choice of hot or cold breakfast, lovely big sandwiches/baguettes and 4 or 5 hot options to chose from every lunch and dinner and they bring around a snack in the afternoon. Plus where he has a prescribed high fat diet he has a special call menu so he can order food whenever he wants off of it. The difference is astounding.

[StStrattersOfMN]

Oooh SAME! Apart from the ballet shoes, I gave that up when I was little, really regret it.

[ZebraOwl]

Stratters!

I am almost!vegan (cannot afford the ballet shoes [obviously I wear canvas ones!] & do own a pair of leather shoes; have to take some medication in capsule form; wear some wool; sometimes have egg; & would be ok with honey in stuff) and fortunately am ok with eating my own body weight in potatoes on the regular. (The buttery at College mostly used to provide me with potatoes & tomatoes... and flapjacks... thank heavens for short terms or I might have died from malnutrition )

I think my Personal Best in terms of Ridiculous Reactions To Dairy = the time I came out in full-body hives after inhaling the steam from a friend's cup of milky tea. That was the only thing it could have been & I had to go to our friend's baby's naming ceremony looking as if I'd developed a hideous skin disease. On the plus side, no one was moved to attempt a laying on of hands because they'd have needed some healing of their own...

[StStrattersOfMN]

Ah, that's one thing our trust does get right - there's LOADS of tea rounds, at least 5. And the water jugs are refilled a couple of times too.

[Toddlerteaplease]

Didn't think there was enough to drink though. Drink rounds were few and far between. No wonder people get dehydrated. I usually drink gallons of tea and took my favourite mug but they would t let me use it as it was too big. The ward I work on has a kitchen for parents to make drinks, I now appreciate that even more. I used to pop down and use it when I couldn't sleep!

[BeyondIBringYouGoodTidings]

Breakfast - cereal or porridge and/or toast
Lunch - soup, few different mains (with choices of sides) or a sandwich, pudding or fruit
Dinner - as lunch

[BeyondIBringYouGoodTidings]

I've spent two weeks in recently. The food was okay, could have been improved upon and was a bit crap for allergies, but it was basically old style school dinner food. Bonus points to Aneurin Bevan for offering hot meals at lunchtime too :)

[Toddlerteaplease]

I had good food when I was in but they kept putting gravy on everything. Despite not ticking it on the menu. Drove me nuts!! The diabetic custard I hadn't asked for on my Apple crumble was revolting.

[lurkeyishere]

Gave not government

[lurkeyishere]

Oh and lavender those omellettes government me the boak. They are frozen and smell like feet I don't know how anyone can eat them our trust had them for a few weeks but us catering assistants complained that much they got rid of them.