to think that meals in hospital shouldn't be free?

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It just seems a bit strange. You'd have to pay for it if you were at home. The cost of feeding hospital patients must be astronomical, and the food (in my quite extensive experience) is pretty crappy. Cheap, badly cooked, and in many cases unsuitable for specific dietry requirements.

Wouldn't most people be happy to pay for their meals, and in return expect to be served appealing, healthy food?

Obviously patients in for extended periods or those on benefits should be offered a free/heavily subsidised option.

It would require some investment to completely change the system - but surely it would save millions in the long-run?

What do you think?

I've always found the lack of sustinence for the people who really need it withing the NHS completely reprehensible. My experience is with elderly people who can no longer feed themselves, watching a plate of food be delivered and then taken away without them having even a mouthful (my gran, namely).

I'm so angry on your behalf, and for your DD.

Perhaps someone should invoke Jamie Oliver for the cause.

On a serious note, does anybody else feel an MN campaign coming on?

I have, hopefully, uploaded a picture of tonight's dinner here. It is cheese omelette with roasted mediterranean veg, so probably very well balanced and certainly not the fried horrors of the past. It was, however, absolutely tasteless.

I think you'll see something of what Chegirl is saying about presentation (fundamental when your appetite is not what it should be), and also an indication of my complaints about portion size, bearing in mind this plate is small. In addition, my orange juice and chocolate mousse came up from the kitchen within the same heated trolley in a sealed tray so were both far too hot to eat and had to be discarded. This is quite literally throwing money away.

oxcat, it looks horrific. Are you talking about the JR? (just guessing from your name)

YABVU

NUTRITION IS A BASIC

am sure has been posted a zillion times havent perused thread

did you know the food budget for an inpatient in t he nhs is less than that of somebody who is within the prison system,as a rule,or at least when i was last researching th issue.

Chegirl.Have just backtracked and read your posts.I am very sorry about ypour experience.Work in adult cancer services and they have the choice o antything on the menu they ancy if the pt hospital menu is not to liking,so can get anything available rom canteen.Hopefully has improved as much as mass catering can.

No, not the JR, although you're right about the origins of the username! Currently about an hour from Oxford.

A doctor came to visit just as the food arrived. Horrified, he asked if I was really going to eat that. The honest answer is yes, as there's nothing else, and I'd lost both pudding and my juice because of no common sense thinking in the kitchen.

ah, ok. Just wondering. The only time I stayed in the JR (since i was a baby) was after having DS and the food was OK. sporadic at best though, and I was moved about a lot so missed meals times frequently.

Thankfully MW + toast exists or I would have starved!

No toast here - not even at breakfast. No 'cooking' facilities at all on the ward so everything comes up from the kitchens ready done. No problems keeping it warm though - normally much too hot to eat for 5-10 minutes after it's arrived, and all sauces and gravies evaporate long before arrival at the patient leaving just funny stains on the plate.

Actually, I'd love some toast right now .....!

toast and tea is apparently the best meal in the world, having given birth. Imagine the uproar if they told women they couldn't have toast until scheduled breakfast time at 7am. I would think there would be beheadings...

Oxcat,buzz and ask the nurses,i have oten done a tea and toast thing at 2 am or so barring major emergencies

i can't believe they don't have a toaster

We don't charge prisoners, why the FUCK should we charge ill people?

well said, colditz

Yes colditz so true!

iloveplayingdarts - I totally agree re the high pay argument. I could work in the private sector for a lot more. But don't as I don't do it for the money.

Yabvu. People need food. If they are fussy a friend or family can bring in something else.

When ds is in hospital I can't afford to. Eat due to cost of it let alone fact can't leave ds

No there is genuinely no toaster, which is why you can only have bread or cereal in the morning. Health and Safety? No idea. All food comes up ready prepared from the kitchen and they don't even keep a packet of biscuits on the ward. They can make tea for you though.

Gtamom - as several people have said, getting food brought in is often fundamental, not due to fussiness but simply because the hospital, for whatever reason (and we've had several different reasons on this thread) cannot provide an adequate nutritional diet for the patients. This is a shame.

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stupid idea.

budget for hospital food is apprently less than for prisioners.

Harefield meals are quite nice. i ate in the canteen, which was the same meals the patients were having. aprt from thursdays. hmmm tiffen thursdaY were the best

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This has to be one of the most asinine ideas I've read on here.

Dilemma, sadly the man who wrote that letter was right. It is a crime the way the elderly are treated in this country. I don't blame the government for that though, it is us families that are failing them. In third world countries there are not many resources for the elderly but the family and community ring up to provide some basic care and company. Our lifestyle doesn't allow for periodical visits to check they are ok, or for them to move in with the younger generation when their care needs increase.

The food at the JR is now dire - my dad was recently in there and didn't eat for 24 hours.

IME (of staff canteen meals which I have had all over the country), the smaller and scruffier the hospital, the better the food. And why ? Because in those, catering is still in house from scratch, rather than the reheated by outside caterers who are trying to make a profit out of their contract. And all the PFI hospitals had to contract out all the cleaning, catering, maintenance etc.

And to keep the terms of their contract, the hospital has to ensure all food provision is from the caterers - so no toasters on wards

YABU.

I think it would end up with people not eating to save cash which would mean they wouldnt recover quickly enough and they would stay in longer.

You are more than welcome to not eat the food and have your own brought in if you would like to do your bit...

the best hospital food I have ever had in my life was here - the (eight beded) maternity ward.

I arrived starved, filthy (Leicester GH showers had been blood filled) and exhausted with the noise of a busy city hospital.

I arrived at one o clock. A p[lace was set at me at a wooded circular country kitchen dining table (there were two of these in the 'family room') and I was presented with an enormous oven baked jacket potato, a slab of thick tender gammon ham, a sliced cold boiled egg, coleslaw, grated cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, peppers, red onion - then a small bowl with assorted whole fresh fruit - and a mug of steaming strong tea. All presented on mismatched china, and foil covered with a biro written sticker on, bearing my very own name.

While I ate, a student ran me a bath, and dumped half a tub of salt in it - ordered me into it then ordered me to bed until tea time (which was roast pork with apple sauce, carrots, cabbage, roasted and mashed potatoes and thick delicious clearly home made gravy).

I never wanted to leave that place. And it was NHS.