Nutritious food
Which? research reveals that patients are being let down by poor food.
Which? research reveals that patients are being let down by poor food.
"I turned one plate of mash, beef and peas upside down and nothing fell off. This was due to the congealed gravy gluing everything to the plate!"
Nutritious food is vital to support a good recovery
Hospital patients need the right food at the right time to help them recover. This isn't just an issue of patient comfort; ill people won't get better if they're unable to get enough nutritious food.
Problems with hospital food are nothing new. But despite many projects and initiatives, the patients we've heard from went into hospital with low expectations about the food they would be served. And all too often, even these low expectations weren't met.
Which? spoke to patients, their visitors and staff about hospital food.
Our research shows that patients and staff think the quality of hospital food simply isn't good enough:
One in three (32%) of the recent hospital patients we spoke to were unhappy with the quality of the food they were served. 25% of patients said the food was so bad they had to buy their own or get someone to bring some in.
Hospital staff agreed - two thirds (67%) of those we spoke to said that improvements need to be made. A fifth of staff (21%) we spoke to said they would be unhappy to eat the food they serve to patients.
"I am a vegetarian and the staff took a lot of convincing that such people existed."
"I had a broken jaw so I could only drink through a straw but I just got brought the usual meal and the staff didn't help with finding me anything suitable."
The NHS is not doing enough to ask for and act on patient feedback. Combined with a lack of Government leadership on the issue, this failure is standing in the way of essential improvements in hospital care, including hospital food.
In 2007 the government published a Nutrition Action Plan, outlining measures to make sure that older people’s food needs are better met in hospital. The Food Standards Agency (FSA) also published new nutritional guidance for public institutions including hospitals. The government must monitor implementation of these initiatives and develop long-term solutions to improve the experience of hospital food for all patients.
The Secretary of State for Health should either extend the remit of the Nutrition Action Plan Delivery Board to cover all patients, or convene a new Hospital Food Standards Implementation Group.
This group must cover the full range of factors involved in delivering high quality hospital food including timely availability, help with eating for those who need it, hygienic food preparation and the provision of healthy food throughout the hospital for visitors and staff. It should also tackle the issues with contracts and procurement which can cause problems.
The Care Quality Commission is the new health and social care regulator proposed in the Health and Social Care Bill currently before Parliament. It should also be responsible for monitoring the way that nutritional guidelines are being followed, and should report to the Department of Health and the public where they are being ignored.
It's time to listen to patients and act on what they say.
Support our campaign by telling us about your hospital experiences, or nominating a hospital hero.
Hospital food briefing (PDF: 66Kb)15 December 2007Which? briefing on patients' experiences of hospital food, and proposals for improvement
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