Jeremy Hunt's plans for hospital food woefully inadequate

Today, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt MP published hospital food standards and announced that it would now be “legally-binding” for hospitals to apply these standards to food served to patients, and sold to staff and visitors on site. Alex Jackson, Co-ordinator of the Campaign for Better Hospital Food [1], resigned from the Hospital Food Panel in April this year in objection to the government’s refusal to introduce a new law to set hospital food standards in legislation [2].

He responded to Jeremy Hunt’s announcement today:

“Jeremy Hunt’s announcement that he will introduce “legally-binding” standards for hospital food appear to fulfil what we have always strived for, yet we’re left feeling that he has pulled the wool over our eyes.

We want to see hospital food standards set down in legislation, similarly to school food standards, and therefore universally applied to all hospitals and protected by publicly elected representatives for generations to come. But instead the government has only committed to including the standards in NHS commissioning contracts, which are long documents full of clauses that without proper enforcement and monitoring can be ignored by hospitals.

In addition, the food standards the government introducing are weak and only reflect basic catering and care standards which are already commonly implemented in the NHS, including that “tap water is available” to patients. Good things in themselves, but not ambitious enough to have a transformative effect on patient meals.

We’re alarmed to discover that the government is not prepared to put the food standards out for public consultation which means that only the Panel members, including food manufacturers with a commercial interest in hospital food, have had any influence over them. The lack of public involvement in, and scrutiny of, the Panel’s recommendations compounds the alarm caused by a Daily Mail article which quoted a government official allegedly undermining the value of nutritious hospital meals, and advising that patients be served doughnuts if going hungry [3].

We’re now calling on Jeremy Hunt to:

• Putting the hospital food standards out for public consultation, so that patients can tell him what changes they would like to see.
• Set hospital food standards in legislation so that they cannot be ignored by hospitals, or be removed or amended without the consultation or consent of elected members of Parliament and will therefore be protected for generations to come.
• Allocate powers to an independent body so that it can review, monitor and support the implementation of the highest standards for hospital food, similar to the role given to Ofsted and the Children’s Food Trust after the original introduction of legislation to set standards for school meals.”

For more information and interviews, please contact: Alex Jackson on 0203 5596 777 or by email at alex@sustainweb.org.  

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Notes

[1] The Campaign for Better Hospital Food represents an alliance of 100 national organisations in calling for the introduction of legislation to set hospital food standards, see www.hospitalfood.org.uk

[2] Resignation letter and press release, April 2014 www.sustainweb.org/news/apr14_camerons_government_in_chaos/

[3] Why junk food can be good for older patients: It’s more important elderly eat doughnuts, ice cream and chips than leave healthy meals untouched, says hospital boss, Daily Mail, 5 July 2014, www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2681330/Why-junk-food-good-older-patients-Its-important-elderly-eat-doughnuts-ice-cream-chips-leave-healthy-meals-untouched-says-hospital-boss.html.