Junk food in hospital vending machines

[MrsHoarder]

BBC article calling for rules about healthy food in hospital vending machines.

I think this is ridiculous. With the price of snacks in these, no-one plans to get food from them. Patients are supposed to be served healthy meals, visitors have the chance to bring their own snacks in. This leaves people who aren't eligable for meals and aren't planning to be there as the main "customers". At 3am in A&E holding DS I don't want healthy food, I want a sugary snack to perk me up.

Also what someone eats on an unplanned hospital visit is unlikely to be a major part of their diet. You can't change people's health through stopping them having an unhealthy snack at a stressful time. You can however make them think healthy food is to expensive if they have to pay a pound for an apple (because of the mark-up in these machines).

I remember thinking how ridiculous it was when I visited my friend in a hospital and the canteen almost exclusively sold junk food.

The mind boggles. Either they didn't know any better or they just didn't care.

Either way, the people in charge shouldn't be working in a hospital.

In January the last ever thing I bought for my Nan before she died was a ham sandwich 1 hour out of date from a vending machine in hospital. If they start keeping it fresh and giving a choice, as you say MrsH, a sugary snack should and could easily be availble, especially alongside health food.

Hope your DS is ok? I met you at our MN Christmas meet up in Bristol. You offered me a pom bear. I have since name changed from BG.

Having been in hospital for 10 days with DS I agree that more good quality healthy options should be available in the canteens and vending machines.

Yes at first you may crave sugar and crap but after a few days your body needs a proper decent meal. I ended up sending someone to McDonald's for me as that was a better option than hospital food (and I hate McDonald's!)

Ok, I see that its not an unpopular idea. Although I'm amazed that canteens don't have healthy options: surely everything has to be fresh either way?

I think that when I've been in hospital for up to a week I've not had the energy for more than just eating whatever the NHS has served me, and when I've been visiting people I've always taken something naice for them to nibble on. Didn't think of parents stopping for a long time with rare breaks, sorry.

DS is fine thanks, he had croup so it passed quickly.

I'd much prefer healthier options in the canteens and the vending machines.

I don't think vending machines are the problem, it is the canteens themselves. In our local hospital it seems to mostly be stodge served up, pie and mash with a few peas on the side, that kind of thing. If you're laying in bed all day, stodge has no place in your diet, you need nutrient dense foods to help you recover, surely that is common sense?

There is a Burger King in the concourse at my local hospital..

30% of items in vending machines being healthier / healthy sound good to me.

Sometimes people don't want to leave who they are with for the time it takes to traipse to wherever the canteen / snack bar is & wait for them to cook something and of course they aren't open all the time.

Just had a thought - DFIL is diabetic - he was in hosp a lot when DMIL was dying - if all that was on offer was vending machines with sugary drinks and mars bars and things that's not good is it.

Yes of course people can take snacks if they know in advance but in practice things happen to mean you have to stay longer / overnight or it's all a bit sudden and so on.

30% healthier will still mean 70% unhealthy if that reassures!

TBH I'm not sure what that's healthy will keep in a vending machine but that's another question I guess. They could do low sugar / low salt cereals with long life milk I guess that would work. Not that I'd eat it Cheese as well keeps for a long time. Is salty though... On balance I'm sure they could find stuff to put in there beyond a mars bar & coke. Prob is they want to make money and the things they sell have max shelf life + people buy them more.

When I worked nights, the canteen was never open by the time we had our breaks. All that was on offer was chocolate and crisps.

It's not too bad if you have brought your own food to heat up from home, but we went months without a microwave on the ward until a staff member kindly brought one in from home. We were not allowed to buy one from ward funds.

I think it's a good idea. A sweet trolley goes to the wards twice a day so if we want them, we get them from there.

Most relatives bring in treats for the patients anyway.