Hospital patients being fed 'disgraceful' meals in bid to save money: 23/02/2014

Frozen or chilled ready meals are often higher in fat, sugar and preservatives and lose much of their nutritional value through processing and reheating.

Leading heart specialist Dr Aseem Malhotra, who sits on the Academy Of Medical Royal ­Colleges Obesity Group, is seeking an urgent meeting with Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to demand action.

He said: “Patients in hospitals are being served disgraceful meals of poor nutritional value which slow recovery, lengthen their stay and increase costs.

“For too long, short-term financial considerations of hospital management have taken precedence over the health of the community.”

Research by the food charity Sustain found approximately 40 per cent of hospitals use large commercial food outlets to provide the ready meals.

Nearly a quarter more use central production units which, though sometimes owned by and located near hospitals, still produce pre-prepared meals, many of which are nutritionally substandard. Only a third of hospitals now make fresh meals in their own kitchens.

Patients in hospitals are being served disgraceful meals of poor nutritional value which slow recovery, lengthen their stay and increase costs

A recent separate study found that three out of five hospital meals contained more salt than a Big Mac. Alex Jackson, coordin­ator of Sustain’s Campaign for Better Hospital Food, said: “Politicians have already set high standards for the food they eat themselves in Whitehall and for the Armed Forces and inmates in UK prisons. Yet they leave many of the most vulnerable people in hospitals to suffer from the ill effects of low quality and nutritionally inadequate food.”

Over the past two decades successive governments have spent £54million to drive up the quality of hospital food, enlisting help from celebrity chefs Albert Roux, Mark Hix and Heston Blumenthal.

A Department of Health spokesman said: “All food provided to patients needs to be nutritious and of high quality, no matter who provides the meals. We have put in place a new inspection programme, led by patients, to help raise standards and we have also asked Dianne Jeffrey, head of Age UK, to head our food standards panel.”

Last year Dr Malhotra won the backing of the British Medical Association for a ban of the sale of junk food in hospitals. Last night he said: “It is now time for the Government to act. We must start in our own backyard. It is time to stop selling sickness in the hospital grounds.”

Sunday Express
23 February 2014