So, our two little girls were admitted to hospital on Friday with chest infections (difficulty breathing, low oxygen levels if you are interested).

They didn’t eat on Friday as they were admitted after the meal was served, but they ate there on Saturday. Anyway, I got talking to the ‘dinner lady’ who was despondent and somewhat embarrassed because the sum total of the food on offer was:

Processed ‘chips’
Jacket potatoes
Baked beans
Cheesy beany mash (basically mashed potato on a bed of baked beans with a cheese topping.
Semolina (for dessert)

But the shocking thing is – they serve the exact same food every single day, 7 days a week. No fish, no meat, just potatoes, beans and a tiny bit of cheese.

I couldn’t quite believe that a hospital can be allowed to serve such a limited menu every single day.

(And co-incidentally a neighbour’s teenage kid has been in for the last three weeks with viral meningitis so has had to eat that food every day for three weeks!

I can’t believe hospitals feed people. Why can’t the family do that ? Save tons of money.

has had to eat that food every day for three weeks!

I’d just take stuff in from home, tbh, you don’t *have* to eat the stuff they serve.

Write to the CEO of the Hospital Trust and ask why this is. Take pictures for a few consequtive days to illustrate your point.

We live in Tory Britain. NHS hospitals are only for peasants and beastly smelly proles! Until we privatise them all. In which case they still will be, but we get to charge you (again) for the Turkey Twizzlers.

You don’t even register on call-me-daves radar. If you want anyone to give a flying one about you, you’ll have to go private, I’m afraid

i was told everything was precooked off site & then steamed back to life.

including the omelet!!

When Our 2 year old was admitted, with just the same type of thing. The food wasn’t great, but they had a little kitchen thingy where you could warm stuff up/ grill food etc. So we just brought in what we were eating at home etc. The health care she recieved was brilliant, I don’t mind sorting her food out, I do it every other day. NHS like all the public sector is in a world of shite, and whilst I can’t afford for us all to be private, I can fill in some of the gaps in state provision.
I hope your girls have a speedy recovery and get home quickly, it’s rubbish to see them that ill!

You should move to Southampton, then you can pick anything you like from the Burger King inside SGH.

Um, hospital food for kids has always been like that, it was 25 years ago too.

The problem is that most kids are in and out again in a day or so, and those who are there are not hungry, or don’t want x, y or z to eat. I worked on a childrens ward and every evening we had a trolley with sausages, chips, beans and fish fingers and some kind of custard and stuff dessert.

It was ace!

God knows how you would compose a menu that would minimise waste and satisfy everyone.

I’d just take stuff in from home, tbh, you don’t *have* to eat the stuff they serve.

That would assume the person in the hospital has someone available to take food in every day. This lad resorted to getting taxis home to get his tea then going back to be put back on his intravenous drip.

You don’t even register on call-me-daves radar. If you want anyone to give a flying one about you, you’ll have to go private, I’m afraid

This is probably very true. The nursing staff were lovely, but the consultants didn’t seem to have the time of day (despite a department for 24 only having four beds occupied).

I was actually quite shocked (if ‘shocked isn’t too Daily Mail a word) at the standards in a hospital in the leafy oasis that is Harrogate.

The dinner lady said they used to do all sorts of really nice food and have good choice but budget cuts meant they had to now serve that rubbish.

Thats how things are, its all about cost and benefit, take pictures and report it to the hosoppital management or find out where the staff canteen is and buy your own food, keep the receipts and give them to the management, ask the staff to use the internal hospital phone ands ask the catering manager to meet you at the ward.

Our old catering managers used to walk the depts every week and ask for feedback.

I hear you, but I’m reasonably convinced from my own 70s upbringing and the dietary preferences of my own children they basically only need starch and sugar to live and indeed thrive till they are about 12. Baked beans count as veg apparently.

It’s not like it everywhere though, recent visits to Salisbury, whilst it was a bit limited, was reasonable enough variation. We did have to supplement with cafeteria trips and bringing our own in occasionally though.

Thats how things are, its all about cost and benefit, take pictures and report it to the hosoppital management or find out where the staff canteen is and buy your own food,

The management won’t be interested, they look at the bottom line without considering the effects of their decisions.
Best of luck to the little ‘uns, I hope they’re OK.

We live in Tory Britain. NHS hospitals are only for peasants and beastly smelly proles! Until we privatise them all. In which case they still will be, but we get to charge you (again) for the Turkey Twizzlers.

Grow up. Hospital food has been shit for years.

If you want to Tory-bash (and I don’t blame you), at least do it properly.

The management won’t be interested, they look at the bottom line without considering the effects of their decisions.

Ive no experience in managing catering, the two factors should be
Is there an increased cost in producing healthier meals
Is there an increased logistical pain in serving healthier meals?

On the whole, the meals I had in Sunderland Royal had some variety, and from memory there was a rolling two week menu, which wasnt fantastic, but must also be a pain in the arse to get out in good time.

Paediatric hospital food is an interesting one. There were a few stories a while back about how ‘unhealthy’ it was, and how hospitals should be setting a good example in nutrition.

However, the key principle is generally getting something, anything down the child, who is likely to be feeling shite, with a poor appetite and wanting something simple.

If that means staples like chips and baked beans, so be it. I recall that most hospital stays for kids are sub 48 hrs, so a balanced diet doesn’t really come into it. I can’t imagine nursing staff want baked beans on the menu though – beans vomit is nasty stuff.

Having said that, Mastile’s menu sounds to be taking that to an extreme, with an added flavour of cost-saving, and serving the same old same old every bloody day is vile for those kids who do stay for more than a few days. I’d be speaking to Matron/PALS about that one.

And where in god’s name are they finding semolina from – have they got a time portal to 1965 next to the kitchens?

Hospitals contract out the catering to multinational corporations on 25 year deals. Why such a long contract with a huge company notepad of shorter contract with a smaller company with a better reputation? Because the contractor then invests millions in refurbishing restaurants and kitchens – something only the really big players can afford to do. The contractors then offer a poor service but the hospital has no comeback as they signed away all their rights because they’re idiots. Many state schools have done the same.

Hope your girls going well.

Lol at binners getting worked up about Tories.

Edit:

Ive no experience in managing catering, the two factors should be
Is there an increased cost in producing healthier meals
Is there an increased logistical pain in serving healthier meals?

Basically, yes to both. On the second point, healthier meals tend to harder to produce and have more complicated supply chains. While they can be produced for the same cost as less healthy meals, to do so requires a motivated and well managed team, not the easiest thing to provide at minimum wage.

The menu if you can call it that does seem strange.
The food does change between hospital / nhs trusts.

Which trust, out of interest?

There’s no excuse for offering such a limited menu every single day.

Best of luck to the little ‘uns, I hope they’re OK.

Yes they are fine thanks – an unfortunate common side effect of one of the prescription meds they are on is hyper-activity though. 😯

I recall that most hospital stays for kids are sub 48 hrs, so a balanced diet doesn’t really come into it.

Probably not typical but two of the four occupied beds over the weekend were for long term patients (three weeks on the one I know about, no idea how long for the other – the dinner lady didn’t say).

But ‘balanced’ or not, I would never feed my kids just beans and chips at home (I would at least give them something like fish fingers as well if doing something convenient) and I can’t imagine what justification a hospital could give for doing so.

Which trust, out of interest?

Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust.

I suspect that the kids aren’t quite as worried about the beans and chips thing as their parents tho? 😉

M_f – if my teenage son was in hospital on a drip I’d be visiting daily. Didn’t realise your neighbours were less, errm, attentive to their children.

Markie – Member

Hospitals contract out the catering to multinational corporations on 25 year deals.

Indeed. Yes, that is the sound of more of even your taxes leaving the country, voters. ‘Growth’ my arse. 👿

[edit] our hospital’s catering is not done in 25 year chunks, (10 iirc), but the current and former contractors do/did have a roling menu of rubbish food so you only get the same rubbish every 2 weeks. The total cost per patient per day is also an incredibly small fraction of the total average ‘per night’ inpatient stay/treatment.

M_f – if my teenage son was in hospital on a drip I’d be visiting daily. Didn’t realise your neighbours were less, errm, attentive to their children.

Possibly, but who am I to question that? To be fair she has another teenage daughter as well as a younger girl that couldn’t be left alone and is a single mum – perhaps she finds it difficult to find the time to get there every night.

I suspect that the kids aren’t quite as worried about the beans and chips thing as their parents tho?

Probably not, doesn’t make it right though.

Hmmm…..curious

Scroll down and click on the children’s ward menu…and then contact PALS to mention the strange discrepancy…

There are also a couple of catering contacts at the bottom.

Ahh yes – that looks like the old menu the dinner lady told us about – she said the ciabatta pizza was especially good.