Heroes Not Zombies

BBC news reports today that Loyd Grossman has attacked government for failing to take patients’ nutrition seriously. In response, the Department of Health “spokesperson” (why are these people always anonymous?) says

A Department of Health spokesperson said: “Hospital food has improved greatly over the past few years.

Wow! It has??!! Well I work in an NHS hospital and I can’t say I’ve seen any improvement in hospital food, so that got me wondering…….improved how? What has improved? The food has improved? I popped across to the Audit Scotland site and found a report on catering in NHS hospitals in Scotland dated last November.

They found that NHS spending on food and beverages (that’s not the catering costs including staff pay and so on, it’s just the cost of the food and beverages) rose from £2.23 per person per day in 2001/2002 to £2.34 in 2005/2006 (and they point out that’s less than the rate of inflation over that period) But that’s an average! The hospital where I work actually spends less than two pounds per patient per day on food and beverages. (about £1.60 actually)

OK, so it’s not rocket science, but what do you reckon? You think the DOH spokesperson is right? The food has improved “greatly” in recent years but they’re actually spending less on it?

How can we expect sick people to get better if we don’t feed them well? Surely a sick person needs even better nutrition than a healthy person does? Here’s my question to anyone in the DOH “What’s your daily spend on food and beverages for your family?” Then compare that to what a hospital patient is given and ask yourself if there’s a problem here.