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.

My DC have allergies so I have a hospital go-bag now after several awful stays. We once had to wait 15 hours for food and all they could find my dd (with dairy allergy) was a dairy yogurt. And she was of the age and disposition that I couldnt leave her to spend and hour going to Tesco and I couldn't call on anyone else to help. When I asked what to do, they said most parents go and get a McDonald's.

I feel YAB a bit U, it's a hospital, not a hotel. How can they cater to every single need?

So OP should starve? she literally can't eat what they're giving her.
It is ridiculous to even intimate she should just shut up and go hungry

And I’m really op for the treatment you’ve received so far, the NHS is shut with mental health. You need access to decent wholesome food that will make you feel better not worse.

ask how you can raise a complaint and complain. If they won’t provide good you can eat - email your MP and local paper. It’s shit when you’re suffering from poor mental health, you don’t need the extra stress wishing you all the best.

ignore the idiots who think your dietary requirements are some kind of luxury. Decent food will be an important part of your recovery

I'm stunned at the fact you used the n-word on a thread about mental health. 🤦‍♀️

I know it’s not much help now but will you get an advocate on Monday?

No, u don't. Being a vegan is a choice. Having Coeliac disease is an illness. I was pretty uninformed until my DM was diagnosed with it.

When my sister was in recently we discovered after 2 days there was a separate gluten free menu so it is worth asking. It was basically a ready meal when it arrived but at least that way we know it wasn't contaminated .

YANBU. At all.

For anyone implying that tne OP is gluten free as a lifestyle chice: My best friend had undiagnosed coeliac disease. It presented weirdly- no D&V or pain- but as it was untreated it made her severely anaemic as she was unable to absorb iron and it's ruined one of her kidneys and. She's only 36.

Just wanted to say I feel your pain, I m a super fussy vegetarian (I know this is different) and have been in hospital since Thursday, I have had six cheese sandwiches! DH has brought snacks. Is there anyone who can bring you food? I don’t think they need to cater for my fussiness as that’s my issue and i m not going hungry but they should certainly provide vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options.

Least of the issues? She is coeliac. It’s an autoimmune condition. 1 in 100 people have it. Eating gluten will make her incredibly ill and sustained consumption of gluten will undo all the damage repair her body has gone through when she stopped eating gluten. What a lot of nonsense.

How ridiculous coeliac disease is a serious condition - autoimmune diseases are normally managed very well by hospitals. Can someone bring you food? I'd report to social services.

Good luck OP. I'm sorry you're in this horrendous predicament x

@Nicecow are you on the wind up or actually this stupid? Do you even know what coeliac disease is? It's not a whim. X

People recovering from serious illness in hospital need to be able to eat as part of their recovery.

If they can't eat what is available be it because of allergies or other commonplace dietary restrictions then food which they can eat needs to be available. The pretence that common mainstream diets are "faddy" is just a way of minimising the actual problem - which is poor quality nutrition for sick people in hospital.

Came here to say the same.

OP I hope you get sorted, you are defo NBU

@Balloonsandroses write baked potato and beans on the menu and tick it. They should be able to do that. I was in recently as a day patient and they'd taken the one thing I could eat off the menu. The food lady told me to do that and it turned up.

You are not being unreasonable. In any way. I’m hoping you’re in and out as quick as possible and that in the meantime they feed you something you can eat as soon as you feel like eating.

I lost so much weight in hospital
They kept having to weigh me .
I even had my nhs dietician sheet of
Red ,amber and green foods
They still couldn't manage it .
I survived on just crisps and chocolate in the end .

I've also been given food I'm allergic to ,so I don't trust them now

I had a scan last week needing contrast Iv , 1 minute after a conversation about my allergies
The nurse just starts wiping the allergen on my skin - she forgot !

It's not good enough .

I work on a psych ward and we cater for allergys and intolerance, but certain bits may take a day or two to come in such as sandwiches , bread and if special cereal is needed. But more often or not one of us would go to the supermarket and get what we can until things can be ordered.
If there's a housekeeping supervisor, talk to them as they often organise the menus if it's done in-house. Our food is cooked on the ward but is delivered prepared from an outside source, hence why certain items may take a couple of days.
Also ask staff about facilities, as we allow patients to bring food in and have a fridge for their stuff.

However I know that not all places are like this. I had a week in hospital last year after giving birth and they couldn't cater for my dairy intolerance. My husband bought in oat milk but they had no where to store it, so dry cereals and black coffee it was.

It's mad. Schools and cafés can manage to provide 3 options daily, which includes vegan, and can cater for common allergies. School dinners while not luxury food are actually reasonably nice Why is it so difficult for hospitals? They could provide plain yogurt and cheap fruit such as bananas for breakfast. Then baked potatoes for one of the other meals. It would probably be easier if everything was vegetarian, the meat is pretty grim. As for the fish pie... Ugh.

I have a medication that has to be taken before all food and drink so I normally take it at 6am. Go to hospital, oh no we do an 8am drugs round and you have to have it with all other meds and your breakfast even though it is against the prescribing guidelines

Maybe it depends where you live? Definitely cater for gluten free diet at my local hospital.

Let's hope you never suffer from a food allergy or auto immune disorder then .

I feel for you
I am also gluten free and have really struggled to get anything suitable whilst I’ve been in hospital
Thankfully I’ve not been in hospital since covid and it’s mostly been admissions planned in advance so I have taken food in and had extra brought in by visitors
I’m due to go in for surgery in 2 weeks and will prepare as if I won’t find anything suitable

You dont think they should cater for vegan? It's not a prison!

Sorry OP for the derail. Is there someone you can speak to?.

Surely not providing food to someone already under section is pretty serious!

This is a nationwide issue, about which Coeliac UK have been campaigning for years, seemingly without a great deal of success. It's not helped by a general lack of understanding among medical professionals as to what Coeliac disease actually is.

However, the issue is not confined to this condition. A friend of mine died after successful surgery because the team 'caring' for him had no idea how to manage a T1 diabetic in the recovery period. The hospital could simply not provide the food he needed when he needed it and by the time they thought to ask his wife to bring food in (she'd been managing his blood sugars for years), it was too late.

Another friend was told that she must give up caffeine after she had a heart attack, but there were no decaffeinated drinks available on the cardiac unit.