Feeding the NHS staff 3 meals a day 7 days a week?

[DontBiteTheBoobThatFeedsYou]

My local food businesses are asked for donations so they can cook and deliver 3 meals a day 7 days a week to the ICU staff at our local hospitals.

It's a really lovely thing to do, and I know people like to feel like their are helping in times of crisis.

Do the ICU staff really want curries for lunch and dinner every day?

Couldn't these generous donations be better somewhere else?

I understand gift of thanks to the ICU staff (and others!) for doing an amazing job. But do they need so many meals everyday?

I guess I'm just not totally convinced it's helping. Not every day in one direction.

@Livelovebehappy I had an appointment on Tuesday, the hospital usually has a huge canteen and 4-5 options including buffet/cafe /salad bar etc to pick from. All shut and cordonned off except for a mini market type of place with a few cold sandwiches and chocolate bars. Don't know where the staff eats, as definitely not there!

Whether you can visit the canteen is surely irrelevant as everywhere I've worked it usually isn't open anyway and the food is crap. What do you normally do on an evening or night shift? Do that.

And as nurses all being "poor people", that's a ridiculous thing to say. There are nurses on all different pay grades and from different socio-economic backgrounds. Some aren't well off, that's true. But we are no more poor than usual right now, we are getting the same pay we always have.

Our canteen is now open 24/7 and yes I do think that people who dont do shifts in the wards are blocking the guys from ITU and other busy places from using it. There are alot of admin staff/day clinic staff etc who are getting free meals three times a day. We have a M and S cafe ans WHSmith doing meal deals but no one is using them now. They are also all getting free ubers to and from work. They arent putting in extra shifts or working in high risk areas. I know this makes me sound bad😕

I see those staff day in day out from ICU trying to get served and its heartbreaking that they are stood in the queue for 30 mind. Surely they shoukd haveca fast track queue or someone should be taking up one of those old fashioned heated trolleys up to their area. Im not sure if chairties are feeding them as theyve never mentioned it and this is a big London Hospital.

Your post is a shining example of the complete, total and utter ignorance that many people have , of the reality of being a frontline nurse in this situation.

I didn't read it like that. I read it as the OP was very happy to give it if it was what was needed. But wanted to check that it wasn't ending up being dumped in a mouldy heap out the back with no one quite liking to say "please don't" in case they gave offense.

I also read it as her being open to other suggestions as to where it could be more useful, or if there was another way to help the NHS staff better.

Sometimes people can be carried away with an idea of a way help, when actually their time, money and enthusiasm would be more appreciated in a different way that those who were not involved wouldn't have realised.
I'm reminded of a story I was once told by a friend who was at a work course and they were told to spend 5 minutes talking to the people next to them about the most helpful thing that could help them-an invention, medical discovery, or generally a life change.
One of the people they were in a group had MS and was in a wheelchair and they all expected then to say something along the lines of "a cure for MS", but what they wanted was, if I remember rightly, a different shaped shoe because one of their feet was deformed (which they didn't know) and any shoe bought off the shelf rubbed painfully.

Someone I know has a small sideline (she also has a job and her DH is a highly paid professional) serving food at a local outdoor venue at weekends and during holidays.
Obviously her business isn’t operating but she says she is working at her actual job from home. She is also crowd funding for a new mobile unit so she can “feed the NHS”, wonder if she then plans to give it to the hospital or keep it?
Bit cheeky and won’t be getting a penny from me - although I would happily donate to help feed nurses etc

Lemonblast PrivateD00r fair enough, every place is different. But if the problem is that you can't leave the ward or enter the staff room, how would donated meals help?

Firstly, you are wearing PPE whilst doing those things I assume?

Well no, not if it isn't a diagnosed or suspected cv patient. We aren't allowed to waste ppe like that wearing it for every single non cv patient (even though they could of course have it).

I guess I'm just not totally convinced it's helping.

Well its not causing any harm either is it?

Canteen here did a breakfast and lunch service for staff and visitors weekdays only before Covid.This has stopped and only the patents cook chii meals done now.Patient evening mealbhas been only sandwiches for years.
Food is being sent to our hospital but I'm not sure where it goes.We all bring our own food as we can't rely on any other food being available,enough for our 2 x30min breaks in 13 he shifts.Our break includes safely removing and then redoning ppe so not long to grab a bite,drink and go to the loo.
Also if food is being sent in where would it be safely stored as many areas have no fridges.
I love curry be am not sure I'd be so happy putting on my ffp3mask straight after and for the next 4 hours.
Food is good if the donors have liased with staff first to see what would work.

How are the canteens run? Are they outside caterers or NHS employees? From reading some of the posts, I wonder if it would be more helpful for some hospitals if there was fundraising to be able to keep the canteens open 24/7, to be able to afford to offer more nutritious food and to have more people working in the canteens during peak hours.

Don’t all hospitals have their own catering facilities? As far as I’m aware their canteens are still open 24/7 to take account of shifts, as they’ve always been

Our canteen and coffee shop have been closed, you can order a meal the day before but I don’t always know what shift I’ll be working or when I’ll be called in.

I did a staff welfare shift earlier, restaurant group supplier delivering preloaded main courses everyday , we packed those up for delivery to wards, clinical and support teams working today and then had a few left that we passed to St John's Ambulance teams who were working on site transporting patients home. We had a meat and a veggie option, so made sure each area had some of each.
They were delivered in sealed take away type containers to go in fridges on the wards , so available for staff to eat and eat as and when they could.

Good feedback, weren't going to feed all working following on what we got (a 400 bed hospital with now > 40 out beds) , but hopefully shared across staff as needed.

They had a man on the radio yesterday who had set up a charity type adventure to do this and was doing v well. He said local businesses were providing things that could be eaten as they were or reheated later to fit around when staff could get a break. So they’re not all delivering hot curry and pizza at meal times needing to be eaten there and then. If the hospitals have the facilities for staff to store and heat up these things it seems a wonderful idea to me. The last thing we want is all the nhs staff burning out. They need to eat! It also helps keep local businesses ticking over too.

I think anything at all that makes the long shifts go by a bit quicker or helps in any way to ease the load of general day to day living stuff such at the moment is to be welcomed and i'm sure it's very much appreciated by all!

Well its not causing any harm either is it?

Actually it could well be.

There’s a steady stream of “donors” to my local hospital to hand something over, which means a member of staff has to stop what they’re doing, go and meet the person, pose for the required social media photo, then go back inside and sort it. So this takes staff away from tasks and brings more people to the hospital, risking contamination.

Then any food has to be stored correctly or it’ll risk harming people.

Then, as PP said, loss of people won’t actually have time to heat up or eat the meal anyway!

The OP isn’t saying “don’t do it”; but I can see how there is an argument for being a bit more mindful on what actually is needed and whether it’s worth risking bringing contamination into the ward for the 35th curry of the week.

The 4 big London Hospitals my mum has been in the last few years no shops or canteen was 24 hours, I’ve slept in the icu family room at St. George’s and there’s a microwave for you to bring food. I’m sure staff appreciate it and on the short breaks they get can enjoy it.

@returnofthecat it’s run by an outside facilities company overall but we have franchises on site (Costa etc) and then the ‘restaurant’ is run by the facilities company I believe. I think your idea is a good one. If this situation has highlighted anything, it’s the question of why NHS workers weren’t been looked after well enough in the first place.

Is the scheme part of @mealsforthenhs? If so, they have a questionnaire for any hospitals who want to sign up, to establish what would be most helpful.

My DB and SIL are hospital drs and have not had 24/7 access to hot food for around 30 years. Not feeding the Red Zone HCPs is foolish at the very least; does anybody believe they make better medical decisions when tired and hungry?

I would happily eat curry for 3 meals a day.

This thread had more replies than I expected!

Just to clear up a few things, I'm a student nurse and the reason I posted was because on some (not all) care settings I have worked on we used to get inundated with food around Christmas time and it can get overwhelming. I was wondering if this might be the case here. But people have made some very good points that I didn't consider, which make me unreasonable which I take on the chin completely.

With regards to the whole 24hour canteen, I was saying yes to a fully functioning canteen rather than a 24 hour one. As far as I'm aware the local one isn't 24 hour. I've never seen it open at night anyway.

And thanks to @Witchend you understood my post exactly how I intended. Some people just want to be angry, no matter how diplomatic and conversational a thread is.

1300, food that is already ready to eat can be eaten in other areas. Whereas if you need to heat it,you are limited to one microwave - that is the issue with the staff room. I hope you are going to go back to your ward and challenge the lack of social distancing! We are now being advised to wear PPE for all patients, given the risk of someone being asymptomatic (especially us, I would hate to pass it on). This is not 'wasting' PPE, I can assure you!

OP, I am sorry you found the kind Christmas gifts 'overwhelming'. I have to say that isn't the case with us, everyone is incredibly grateful and it soon gets hoovered up to be honest! We have a large footfall in our staffroom though, the doctors, anaesthetists and domestics from the whole unit tend to come to our tearoom. If it gets too much, couldn't you donate to the foodbank? Obviously I am referring to tins of sweets at Xmas, not curries etc!

How are you managing with the changes right now? I really feel for students right now!

We are getting inundated with Easter eggs. We normally get loads and are giving them out for weeks. But this year there are even more and less kids to give them too!

@potionqueen. Ours is currently open 24/7 but usually isn't. We also have a 24 hour costa .

If you're a student nurse then I'm sure you can imagine how working the 12.5 hour shifts in PPE, with no breaks because you're working your butt off to keep people alive in an ICU while you're trying not to mix with the rest of the hospital as covid is everywhere, makes accessing food very difficult.

I'm not working in ICU, I am frontline though. I have a dietary requirement and I can't access any food other than what is delivered as the canteen won't provide for me (wheat allergy). Curries, however, are suitable for me and have been a life line when delivered. You can't imagine the delight when free smoothies and bananas were delivered to every ward last week.

You sound ungrateful. You may not have intended to come across that way but you did. I'm thankful for everybody's kind intentions. If I don't want the food donated I leave it for someone in greater need- we appreciate it all. Not least of which it reminds us that people are aware we're risking our lives and our families' and working extra shifts and doing our very best for the public right now.

Clearly you're very lucky you don't have to be putting in 60 hours a week in your local ICU, i'd back off and be more grateful to be safe if I were you. I barely sleep at night with worry that I'll be passing this onto vulnerable family members.

I do agree that food is also needed in other places eg homeless shelters, delivered to the shielded group and to elderly people too though!