Hospital food

[EllaSW]

Has anyone ever tried to tackle the quality of hospital food (Jamie Oliver style)? It doesn’t need to be perfect but my goodness it’s diabolical. How do they expect patients who are attempting to recover to do well on the crap they’re fed?

Personally i found it absolutely fine. Tasty even! A vast improvement from when i stayed 18 years ago. It included steamed veg and / or fresh fruit for every meal, and protein and carbs

It must depend on the hospital. I used to help my Nan pick her meals and they always looked nice... Not finishing that Nan?

When was the last time you were in hospital as a patient @EllaSW . If you are honest?

Good question. I saw my late MIL’s hot offerings last year, wasn’t impressed. She mainly ate salad.

I was in A&E end of last year and the sandwich lady came round. I was absolutely starving (hadn’t eaten for about 8 hours) - got the most basic cheese sandwich on cheap white bread. I never eat white bread like that - I’m sure a basic wholemeal loaf isn’t more expensive and it’s healthier!

i think if I was ever admitted I’d have jacket potatoes and salads from the ‘menu’. Why is it always white stooge a lot of the time? I’d also get DH to bring in healthy supplemental foods.

I haven’t been a patient since I had DC by c/s so was in for a few days. I remember having one meal which was like slop on a plate. I’d ordered fish in a sauce but I was convinced it was chicken (I didn’t eat meat then but I ate it anyway!).
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It was fine the few times I’ve been in. Basic but adequate. There was always soup and/or fruit juice for starter, a choice of main, different carb and vegetable choices, salad cups, fruit or pudding.

The hospital staff don’t seem to care if the patients eat or not so the standard of food served is immaterial.
When a relative was in hospital a family member visited daily to help with eating, otherwise they would have been left to go hungry.

@SpicysirrachaIn hospital currently! The food is appalling. I’m not that fussy either.

In Dublin and been in a bit over the last five to ten years. Food is absolutely appalling here, and that is me being polite!!

You know the soup is basically like cuppa soup, no nutritional value whatsoever.

It didn’t taste like cups soups. But even so, when you add in soup, fruit juice, salad, vegetables and fruit each meal it’s not too bad, given that it’s NHS.

Really depends on the hospital. Our local one always has pretty decent food. Here’s one of the meals I had during my stay, admittedly a few years ago now.

It depends on the hospital and the ward even. In HDU after surgery the food was great. In the ward afterwards it was okay, back in my local (very big) hospital it was absolutely terrible. To the point where I had to beg someone else’s visitors to go down to Costas to get me something to eat. And I hate Costa.

My local one isn't that horrendous. You could eat from there for a week and not feel too depressed. I had to eat it for 5 weeks and that was too much!

There were only a few things that were edible.

Chicken dinner, beef stew, jacket potato with beans, cheese or tuna, salad, jerk chicken from the secret menu and I think the salmon was tolerable for the first couple of weeks!

I had to eat it twice a day, at least 75% of the plate. Thank god it wasn't 100 because the textures some of the things were giving were just bizarre. And the carrots tasted like stale McDonald's cheeseburger?!

But to be fair it was just about bearable. I think it depends a lot on the hospital. According to the nurses, St George's has the best food. I have only ever tried one so nothing to compare it to.

I was in hospital 4 yrs ago. Ordered vegetable quiche. I was out having an MRI when dinner was served & came back to a covered plate. It was a very small slice, tepid & "sweaty'. The fork almost bounced as I tried to tackle it. I had one mouthful. It was rubbery, almost tasteless, but smelled like old cooked cabbage. No one batted an eyelid that I didn't eat it.
Breakfast I opted for miilk & a yoghurt. Yoghurt tiny, like a kiddie one but nice. If the milk was 100mls I'd be surprised.
The next 2 days I was in I just had salad. Any meat was fatty & I left it. Coleslaw was cheap & tasted of vinegar.
I ordered a "mousse". It was yellow, presumed it was lemon. It wasn't. It was like a chemical banana (remember the fluorescent yellow liquid antibiotic for kids?) I nearly heaved. Didn't make that mistake again.
I was glad to go home.

When you say appalling - what are we talking? Are you usually a foodie?

I am not a “foodie”. I just wanted fresh veg and fruit incorporated in to the provision - and both were and in a substantial portion so I was happy enough.

They need to serve bland food. Obviously

That looks very pleasant

Which hospital is that? I’ve been an inpatient in James’s a couple of times over the last number of years and I was told to get the beef stew one day. It was actually delicious!! Mind you the rest of it wasn’t great! How can you muck up porridge!

you can always ask visitors to bring in food, and it's not unheard of to get deliveries to the wards. Can't imagine for a second that the budget for catering has increased in line with the actual cost of food.

I personally think food deliveries should be banned. Imagine feeling utterly nauseated and the person next door orders in very smelly dishes

the hospital intentionally keeps food bland

DH was in hospital for ten days recently and the food looked OK and he said it tasted alright. Every meal came with a piece of fruit, a yoghurt, packets of biscuits, and a juice too.

But when DS was in the same hospital at 18 months old all he was given for breakfast was 1 weet-a bix with a very small amount of milk on top. I asked if there was perhaps a banana or yoghurt he could have with it and was told no, that’s it.

A friend was in a different hospital and Sundays were ‘easy meals’ days she was told, so her evening meal was a small dinner plate completely covered in baked beans with 2 small fish fingers plonked on top. Nothing else offered with it except a cup of tea and she was still hungry so I popped out to the shops to buy her fruit and a sandwich etc. Disgusting for people recovering from illness/injury etc

you'll smell far worse than smelly food on most wards. Hospitals aren't hotels and are rather cash strapped on the whole. In an ideal world it would be amazing if the food was delicious, nutritious, hypoallergenic, cater to all medical needs, appeal to all cultural backgrounds, but simultaneously be bland enough to not cause offence and cheap, but this isn't an ideal world and you can't please everyone.

Come again?
I am just saying ordering in very pungent curries for example would be inconsiderate.

The government not feeding patients properly is the height of inconsiderate actually.

I don’t think the government isn’t feeding patients “properly” 🤷‍♀️

James Martin did a whole thing, operation hospital food.

the budgets are stupidly low like £3.50 a day per patient.

I use bupa and the food is incredible compared to nhs offers.

everything with the nhs is broken. And a total lottery.