The review made eight key recommendations, including upgrading kitchens, enshrining standards for nutrition, sustainability and quality in law (as school food standards are already), and tightening up the monitoring of NHS food by empowering the Care Quality Commission to report on compliance.There does not appear to be any new money allocated to help hospitals enact the recommendations.
Support from senior politicians has already been secured: According to the report it is backed by the Prime Minister, and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock said today that he wanted hospitals "to be beacons of good health". So far, government has committed to establishing ‘an expert group of caterers, dieticians and nurses to decide on next steps’ and promised that new hospitals will have kitchens and facilities on wards to allow patients to access ‘hot toast’ at any time of the day.
The recently published National Food Strategy: Part One includes a commitment to improve public sector procurement of food and drink. Henry Dimbleby, independent lead for the strategy, has promised to include a comprehensive recommendation in Part Two on what the government can do to ensure that the food the state pays for directly – including in hospitals – is both healthy and sustainable.
The review's recommendations include several measures that are in line with what Sustain called for in our long-running Campaign for Better Hospital Food, for example the review calls for:
Enshrining hospital food standards in law - like the school food standards are already, and ensuring that standards for quality, health and sustainability apply to patient, staff and visitor food, food manufacturers, and food retailers within hospitals, including vending machines
Enhance the role of the Care Quality Commission to better monitor and enforce standards - The report described concerns that the current monitoring process - self-reported survey data - has become a ‘tickbox’ process for some trusts and may not accurately reflect reality. It said ‘There is very little evidence to prove that food and drink standards are being monitored closely enough.’
A mandatory requirement to use a 40% cost/60% quality split across the NHS for all food and catering services, to make sure that themes such as farm assurance, food waste management, and engagement with small and medium enterprises (SMEs) have priority over cost. The report notes that here are no systems in place to monitor compliance with Defra’s Balanced Scorecard, and there is ‘enormous inconsistency with purchasing high-quality products, understanding the role of sustainability and managing food waste.’
Better Hospital Food: The campaign represents a coalition of organisations calling on the Westminster government to introduce mandatory nutritional, environmental and ethical standards for food served to patients in NHS hospitals in England.
Ruth manages Sustain's work on the Climate and Nature Emergency and on Sustainable Fishing, working to make food a central part of policies to tackle the climate and nature emergency at a local and national level; also to encourage businesses to adopt a fully sustainable fish policy, and thereby help transform the way the world's oceans are fished.
Ruth has led campaigns at Sustain for over seven years, joining from the Marine Stewardship Council. She is a graduate of the University of Oxford and Imperial College, London, where she was awarded the Fishmongers' Company Scholarship.
Sustain advocates food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, promote equity and enrich society and culture.
The latest news on better food and farming from across the Sustain alliance
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