AIBU to like hospital food?

[JustAnotherUserinParadise]

Lighthearted obviously!

I recently had to spend the day in hospital twice due to finding out my baby is breech at 38 weeks, and trying to turn it with an ecv (twice).

I've always heard jokes etc about how terrible hospital food is, but having had both lunch and dinner both times, aibu to really like it?? I mean I know it's not brilliant, but I find something about simple, low-quality stodge quite comforting!
Maybe it's just because it reminds me of school dinners! That was certainly the last time I ate a plain cream cracker with cheddar haha! And having to fish the lumps of fat out of my steak pie... Sigh!

When I had my son, the hospital food was gorgeous I was so impressed.

He had a fairly lengthy hospital stay due to being underweight (breastfeeding didn't work) and we stayed for two weeks and the food in the children's hospital was so nice as well.

But my sister has been admitted frequently due to a chronic condition and the food in her local hospital is beyond poor. They also infected patients with listeria in their sandwiches

@listsandbudgets

I quite like it too especially pudding!!

Right now I'd settle for anything that didn't involve me in planning, preparation or cleaning up afterwards ( though I'd prefer not to go to hospital to achieve it!!)

Yes- anything that I didn’t have to think about and just appeared would be such a treat.

@ivfbeenbusy custard is one of the very few foods I don't like actually, but if they offer it to me I'll take a chocolate pudding with ice cream!

Maybe it's all about the pots... The tiny ice cream tubs remind me of going to the theatre/panto!

@Crappyfridays7

I’ve been in a few hospitals in Scotland. The best food was simpsons maternity in edinburgh, puddings were amazing. I was in antenatally so thoroughly enjoyed the food for 2 weeks at a time. I was v bored though. At john’s in Livingston had nice food too & stirling royal. However my son was in a children’s ward for 5 days and the food was horrible

Children’s ward food is shocking. I was there as dc’s feeder (breastfeeding) and was allowed it. Beige and unappetising. I got fruit and salad bought in.

There are two occasions I've liked hospital food: once in a private hospital, and the other at a hospital in Stockholm in the canteen. I've been (for work) to many, many, many hospitals all over the world for 20 years and honestly these are the only ones.
It doesn't help that I'm coeliac and require gluten free food, so didn't get post birth toast (or indeed any food at all, no one told me I had to go to the kitchen 3 hours before every meal to tell them I'd need to eat), and on another lengthy stay found that it took 24 hours to get gf food, and if you moved wards it didn't follow you. So combined with nil by mouth for multiple operations I just didn't get anything at all for days

It’s been a while since I stayed in hospital, but the food was fantastic! I think I’d struggle if I had to stay in now though as I remember them being very carby! And as a Diabetic I’m very low carb.

I hate airplane food because I hate eating on planes. It's something to do with altitude and recycled air. But I love hospital food. I had an amazing plate of garlic chicken pasta after my C section and it was just so amazing to eat something with garlic and herbs in and not feel sick

I haven’t stayed in hospital but have had food after a day operation 2 or 3 times. One of my procedures was in a private hospital & I was given a beautifully made egg & cress sandwich with a cup of tea in a china cup. I hadn’t eaten since the previous lunchtime & it was so good!

Favourite ante-natal ward breakfast that I had every day - scrambled eggs and tinned tomatoes. (Was stuck in for weeks.) Toast on request, bless 'em.

The maternity care was crap, but they did breakfast ok.

The maternity wing food at my local hospital was so good I thanked the catering staff before I went home. It was just a well it was good as I was in for a week.

I've spent too much time in our local hospital for various reasons. The steak pie is pretty good and the trifle pots are banging. On the maternity ward there is a fridge you can raid for snacks anytime you like; I ate a lot of cheese sandwiches

@CMOTDibbler

There are two occasions I've liked hospital food: once in a private hospital, and the other at a hospital in Stockholm in the canteen. I've been (for work) to many, many, many hospitals all over the world for 20 years and honestly these are the only ones. It doesn't help that I'm coeliac and require gluten free food, so didn't get post birth toast (or indeed any food at all, no one told me I had to go to the kitchen 3 hours before every meal to tell them I'd need to eat), and on another lengthy stay found that it took 24 hours to get gf food, and if you moved wards it didn't follow you. So combined with nil by mouth for multiple operations I just didn't get anything at all for days

The missing meals thing has happened with numerous relatives. I’m sure one relative wouldn’t have eaten more than breakfast for days were it not for family bringing her food in due to lots of changing wards and going off ward for various tests and procedures.

When my Dad was in for a week or so about 10 years ago he realised the elderly lady in the bed next to him wasn’t eating anything. No one seemed interested. When he was able to get up he would sit there and help her. She could physically feed herself but was quite hard to rouse properly and a bit confused so needed encouragement to keep ‘on task’.

I’m surprised they don’t have a meal chart somewhere so nursing staff can check, especially with older patients who are more likely to get confused and not advocate for themselves.

On a more positive note, DH loved the food when he was in for a few days in 2016 and a friend who recently had an op at a swanky private hospital posted his menus on WhatsApp and it was like an upmarket ski chalet - complete with wine list!

When i was in sixth form I had a part time job as a ward assistant, doing a bit of cleaning and taking round the tea and meal trolleys. I loved the job (used to chat to all the old people) but also got quite fat from eating all the leftover meals!

The sausages were great - cheap and fatty, but delicious.

Been in hospital in two big cities and worked in one -

First one - food pretty awful, but because I worked there knew they had a secret menu - so could ask for baked potato, chips, sandwiches, fried fish, fried chicken etc . Bit more palatable than endless plates of fish/chicken in cheese sauce/gravy .... and milky puddings (sago, semolina, custard, angel delight, blamange, cold tinned fruit with hot custard, ‘ice cream’ that was like soup) . I do remember that we had to date stamp a lot of things - pre packed cheesecakes lasted three years . God knows what was in them ...

At Christmas and on Sundays they did sometimes do nicer stuff - Christmas time one year they offered everyone banoffee pie, it was actually a proper slice someone had made fresh . They also did eg slices of Christmas cake, and for tea on Christmas used to offer like a ‘picnic’ tea sort of thing with pork pie, sausage rolls, mini sandwiches etc .

Even little things like actually getting access to sauce and jam used to be a faff though - lost count of the number of times we had to explain we didn’t have much of either . You’d just get an assorted box of both which could be 50 salad cream and two tomato sauce, or 45 black currant jam and two marmalade ...

Second hospital - horrendous . In for thirty six hours - they gave me a single roll with jam, no water, no tea etc - told me I missed lunch because I was having a scan, missed dinner because I was asleep . Patient’s mother in next bed went to WHSmith for me and got me a bag of stuff, was so bloody hungry and thirsty !

I've never had a palatable meal in an NHS hospital. I was served some lovely-looking food in a private hospital but I felt too ill to eat it .

When I had DCs the hospital had just had some sort of partnership with James Martin and has shifted to cooking everything in-house again. It was like the nicest school dinner food - meat pie and gravy, sponge puddings and custard, all freshly cooked and lovely. That was the only good part about being in there!

I do remember discovering in training that a great deal of hospital food was made off site in a factory, and then transported in heated containers to other hospitals up to 65 miles away - to be served for lunch and tea . Hopefully that isn’t still the case [sick][sick]

Yanbu ! When I was in for both of my babies I loved the hospital stodgy food - who doesn’t like lasagne AND potatoes AND crumble and custard ?!!! I even wondered whether they had special fattening up food on the post natal Ward loved it !!

Just had both DP in different hospitals.

DF coped with the food - not as good as homemade but absolutely edible. Had to use nurse friends to snuggle in coffee and newspapers which he was missing.

DM couldn’t cope. Possibly affected by the fact that they weren’t running a full menu as Brexit had disrupted food supplies. Nurse friends smuggled her in homemade sandwiches, soup, cake and fruit!

@whathellwasthat

I do remember discovering in training that a great deal of hospital food was made off site in a factory, and then transported in heated containers to other hospitals up to 65 miles away - to be served for lunch and tea . Hopefully that isn’t still the case [sick][sick]

It tasted like it was last time I was in hospital. I was in for a week and after a couple of days I just had their pre-packed sandwiches but even they weren't very nice. The only decent meal was breakfast as you can't go too far wrong with cereal!

It was pretty poor when I was in last year, but before my op I was so ill, and after so starving, that I really didn't care. The food is the icing on the cake (so to speak) of the medical care.

I spent a few days in hospital with a miscarriage, and the food was actually really comforting! Shepherds pie (served with chips...), Mac and cheese. Proper stodgy comfort food, plus puddings!

Though when DS1 was in for over a week it was awful. He had a milk allergy, so he needed the allergy meal (contained none of the top allergens). There was a beef, a chicken and a veg option, all some unidentifiable stew, the same ones for lunch and dinner for the ten days we were there. How on earth I was supposed to persuade a very sick one year old to eat that rubbish I’ll never know. Luckily my mum brought in a bag of all his favourites (and some ready meals for me!).

I've had stays in 3 different NHS hospitals (all different health boards) in the last 12 months and there was a huge variation in the quality of the food. Two of them had lovely food with plenty of choice and delicious puddings (one even has fancy plates). The third was awful and I was sending pictures of it to a friend for her amusement. Unfortunately with the current visitor restrictions I wasn't able to get food brought to me from outside so had to put up with it for 5 days, the only up side being 2 puddings a day.

My local hospitals food is fine

I've quite enjoyed it when I was in.

Agree it's comforting when you are feeling ill, like a childhood routine.