To expect that a hospital should be able to meet my dietary needs?

[Balloonsandroses]

Pretty sure I’m not being unreasonable! Been in hospital 24 hours now and just been to eat a meal for the first time (my choice). There is nothing gluten free. I have coeliac disease which they’ve known since admission. Gluten makes me vomit. So I can literally eat pepper, cucumber and lettuce. To add insult to injury this is a psych ward and I was admitted under section (still furious about this) so I can’t even leave and go and buy some food.

Unfortunately coeliacs can't just get a chippy tea or McDonald's brought in. I wish we could.

No vegan activist onslaught. I am plant based, I don’t say vegan
anymore because it is so associated with militancy.
however, you display extreme ignorance.

people make choices for all kinds of reasons. If someone doesn’t fancy all that they know will be in big standard hospital butter in their body, they absolutely have a right to be respected for that choice. Maybe they are better educated than most or have made life decisions they want to stick to. I find this level of disrespect for life choices so very ignorant it depresses me.

I apologise elephant - I meant to quote the previous commentator. Not you. I am not great with the posting system….. apologies - your comment is appreciated.

@Balloonsandroses I am really sorry to hear this has happened to you. I both work in MH settings and am a coeliac. It is not OK. It sounds like one HCA understands which is good. I have worked in settings where things are much better and we try to cater for all diets, and just normal preferences too. I think things are really overstretched in acute MH atm. Hospitals vary as to whether the MH Trust uses the hospital catering or sources catering separately (although your ward is probably in a general hospital it will be run by a separate specialists MH provider) and that also affects their access to hospital catering.

IF things are not improving today you can speak to PALS, you can also speak to an IMHA service and raise this issue. And you can speak to the ward manager direct. its a health need and it needs to be addressed whilst you are in hospital - you are absolutely entitled to complaint to the hospital managers if it isn't fixed as a matter of urgency. I will warn you the GF option when it comes will probably be a bit dull, but their catering supplier should offer one - if you are unlucky enough to be in for a month, which is unusual you will probably eat a lot of JPs. It is also true that OOH options on the ward may be ltd to sandwiches, biscuits, cereal. But as an action point for the ward they should maybe consider keeping some GF biscuits/crackers etc on site, as they are often dairy and egg free too. Its important for meeting your MH needs too as your anxiety won't get better if your blood sugar is all over the place from starving or you eat food which makes you ill.

I was recently in a private hospital for a minor procedure and even they didn’t have gluten free bread!

@Nicecow

do u even know what coeliac is Hun?

I hope it’s resolved too.
I’m sure OP has been very overwhelmed by this thread.
Just FYI you cannot “just order in” for those with coeliac disease, an autoimmune condition, the requirement is not only that the food itself and any condiment etc is gluten free, but also that any utensils, machinery, packaging and preparation are are gluten free and have never touched wheat, rye, etc.

Many people in their own homes have dedicated pots and pans, utensils, chopping boards and plates.
For this reason you can’t just trust any random take away etc to cater for this sort of need.

Hence why the hospital must cater for this or the patient might have a very severe reaction (which the NHS will pick up the bill for anyways). But we know that whoever runs the show spend pounds to save pennies.

p.S. I’m not having a go at you. Just using this to be educational, given how clueless other were on this thread. Someone coming across this may benefit from the knowledge. :)

I feel angry too about the ignorance about coeliac disease in an actual hospital.

It's not a choice. It's a DISEASE that is officially diagnosed by doctors, who then TELL you you can't eat gluten, any gluten. Not ever. For life.

I wonder if you saw the same consultant. Catchphrase: "Lifelong and absolute!" Repeated enough times that it's engraved in my brain.

How can 10% think YABU?

Me!

It was my then teenage son. I got him to see the consultant alone (he was nearly 19) so that it would seem in the best and kindest possible way, very serious. I did come in at the end of the consultation but whatever the consultant said before I did was very seriously taken in. 🙂

Have you ever been a psychiatric inpatient? There's huge swathes of time when there's nothing to do (especially at the weekend when OP posted). It can be really hard to get hold of a member of staff to raise concerns with, and if you do, it's hard to get anywhere with those concerns. Especially at the weekend. Other patients may be off doing their own thing, not up to chatting about the situation, have their own concerns, or just not be the people you want to discuss your dietary problems with.

More, the epistemic power balance is such that a mental health patient can easily be made to feel that their perfectly reasonable concerns could actually be a symptom of their mental illness, and they may worry they'll be treated as obsessive or psychotic or attention-seeking or manipulative if they push too hard for what they need. Therefore it's quite understandable for OP to ask other people outside the situation what they think of it, and whether it's reasonable to kick up a fuss about being locked up and not given access to food they can eat.

Yeah, they put the fear of gluten in you

Why? Why shouldn’t she be able to eat? 😳

I hope it's been resolved for OP bc of it hasn't it is absolutely a statutory a42 safeguarding concern under the care act 2014 and OP should know her rights

@JarByTheDoor
**
Yeah, they put the fear of gluten in you

Ok that was pretty witty! 😆

Also really I hope OP is able to eat now and that the ward team have resolved this

It shouldn't be something she has to keep reminding ward nurses of !!

I’m sympathetic but do you understand OP has a medical condition dictating what she eats? For a coeliac even small crumbs of non gluten bread can create a bad reaction. Apologies if you are vegan for similar reason but there is a difference. Unfortunately NHS is in dire financial straits. Accommodating medical dietry needs of course, accommodating the many different likes and dislikes would be too much especially given it’s temporary.

The NHS is on its knees. They have to provide nutritious meals for many different needs. The obvious thing to do is provide meals that everyone without a dietary requirement can eat. That would be vegan. Standard meals should be vegan. Everyone can eat vegan food unless they have a restriction like coeliac. Another benefit would be that vegan food can be much more cost effective thereby making available resources to provide everyone with a specific requirement decent food. Eg coeliac. I say this as a happy omnivore

@Grrrrdarling

I dont think they believe that butter beans have butter in them. Another poster said that they couldnt get anything vegan/dairy free as when they were in hospital, the naked beans had dairy added to them. So she couldn't even have baked beans.
I think the poster you quoted was referring to that with a bit off tongue in cheek "beans with butter in them" comment.

The obvious thing to do is provide meals that everyone without a dietary requirement can eat. That would be vegan.

Wouldn't be necessarily free of nuts or gluten which OP needs, though?

MIL would be very upset by a vegan diet. She hasn't had a proper hot meal if it doesn't include meat. I'm not like that, but I see what she's like. She's 100% entitled to feel like she does. As for fake milk in her (7 x/day) cuppa, omg, she'd be so unhappy. People in hospital feel bad so often struggle to eat at all, please don't insist they should only have 'strange' foods. They will give up.

This thread is days old, hope OP is eating ok now.

Yanbu and I suspect the stress of not having access to adequate food isn't helping. As has been said hotel services have a budget to provide food for dietary needs, but it's not something you should have to chase! It is really luck of the draw unfortunately, the trust I have worked for had extensive menus.

Ask for an independent advocate who will take this up for you - an IMHA - Independent Mental Health Advocate - its a right.