Hospital food

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Woody57

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Type 2
Morning all
I am type 2 diabetic and have recently spent 6 days in hospital. The choice of food for diabetics was pretty poor with no alternatives
Breakfast this morning all sugary cereals, no wholemeal or indeed any toast. Sweet yoghurts and that was all. All quite difficult especially after long periods of fasting pre- procedures. How do others cope, and do some hospitals cope better than others. I was in Ipswich and Bournemouth, both equally poor.
 
Woody57 said:
Morning all
I am type 2 diabetic and have recently spent 6 days in hospital. The choice of food for diabetics was pretty poor with no alternatives
Breakfast this morning all sugary cereals, no wholemeal or indeed any toast. Sweet yoghurts and that was all. All quite difficult especially after long periods of fasting pre- procedures. How do others cope, and do some hospitals cope better than others. I was in Ipswich and Bournemouth, both equally poor.
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I agree. Just spent 15 days in Stoke Mandeville and while I carb count and am insulin dependent the breakfasts were, as you say, very poor - downright unhealthy. Main meals were on 5 x weekly menus, but hopelessly incomplete for carb info. Inexcusable, in my view.

I'm waiting for a revised discharge lettter, the first version was a work of fiction. Then I feel an angry, but polite, email to the CEO is needed, copy to my MP; they need encouraging to do a lot better.
 
I only had a couple of days in hospital but as you say the choices pretty poor. The best option was omelette and salad, but yoghurts low fat but high carb, breakfast toast and cereal. Of course no visitors allowed to bring in something more suitable.
 
Hospital food is unbelievable. Not good for diabetics. But, hey, are they not medical specialists? Surely they all should be concentrating on appropriate food for the various required 'diets'. But they don't seem to.

I had a weeks stay atBlackpool Victoria. The food there was completely inappropriate for diabetics. Amazed I survived!!!

So, what stops them from doing a 'proper' job. Anyone know? Anyone got a solution?

Is food not part of the healing (or poisoning (if you get it wrong)) process?

Makes me quite angry.
 
Bruce Stephens said:
Money.
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Yep - or rather lack thereof.

Bland bland bland stodge with no seasoning allowed. Was before the pandemic and I loved our next door neighbour - he nipped in Tesco on the way to visit me and brought me 2 different pots of prepared fruit each with its own plastic fork. One pineapple and one sliced apple, with skin. Being pretty much immobile for nearly a week - I needed them! (TMI)
 
I don't know what it is currently but the allowance to feed a patient used to be only about a couple of quid a day.
 
Bruce Stephens said:
Money.
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Too easy and a glib excuse.

Money does not stop any hospital from providing reliable nutritional information on (even) bland stodge.

I am extremely confident that every hospital has a catering contract that spells out in minute detail all aspects of the nutrition; it will be 40-50 pages long as a detailed spreadsheet and probably updated monthly to reflect seasonal catering changes I saw the one at the Churchill Hospital in Oxford and politely embarrassed the outgoing Matron when I showed it to her in a folder on the Ward admin clerks shelf; she most graciously did something about that the next day - across the hospital. The remit to provide this will be spelt out in the contract. One small, easy, step is to make it available to patients and with current technology not particularly expensive to create (user friendly) carb count extracts from that contract; no financial figures were included so no commercial sensitivity.

There is nothing cheap about high carb baby tubs of fruit flavoured yoghurts in relation to 1kg cartons of plain thick yoghurt at 4-5% carbs. I could go on.

It's the lack of will to provide properly and lack of recognition of the importance of simple, but quality, food. Since our current legislation requires all large catering outlets to provide nutritional info - why are hospitals excluded?
 
Proud to be erratic said:
Money does not stop any hospital from providing reliable nutritional information on (even) bland stodge.
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It could because it takes time to calculate the total nutritional content and publish/print it.
It also leaves little flexibility to make adjustments or costs extra when supplies need to be substituted.
Likewise, it takes time which costs money to accurately and hygienically dish out large tubs of yoghurt to multiple patients.
Commercial economics where you have to pay people is very different to domestic economics.
 
helli said:
It could because it takes time to calculate the total nutritional content and publish/print it.
It also leaves little flexibility to make adjustments or costs extra when supplies need to be substituted.
Likewise, it takes time which costs money to accurately and hygienically dish out large tubs of yoghurt to multiple patients.
Commercial economics where you have to pay people is very different to domestic economics.
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Sorry @helli - not true.

That detail will already be provided in the commercial contract, as it was at Oxford. However no-one at Oxford, including the individual 7 +/- dieticians, knew it existed until I showed it to the Outgoing Matron. It just needed visibility, then someone like that Matron to give it visibility. Oxford sent a monthly copy of the updated spreadsheet electronically to every Ward and Department in the Hospital. On my ward the admin clerk printed and dutifully filed it in an A4 lever arch folder, then put it on a shelf.

All the rest is simply a matter of willingness to deal with catering responsibly and healthily. At Stoke Mandeville the 5 x weekly glossy menus probably cost more than the breakfasts and are regularly scrapped for inevitable hygiene reasons. Cosmetically pretty, but way over the top - all commercially demanded in the Contract. In the noughties I was spending £25 million annually, from contracts written in accordance with Treasury rules; I spent hours scrutinising these for loopholes that allowed us and the Contractor to legally vary the written word to provide a better service on the ground. Shades of "Yes Minister" - you'd struggle to make these things up sometimes.
 
Only have high expectations of treatment & care in hospital not for food they serve, its not fine dinning by any means but don't have any issues with it personally.

Stayed for 4 nights last year & ate fine, didn't go without or had to have food brought in, mind not on restrictive diet so that properly helps.
 
Is it worth a campaign? It seems unbelievable that the government spends so much on Diabetes awareness yet allow public institutions to do nothing.
 
Woody57 said:
Is it worth a campaign? It seems unbelievable that the government spends so much on Diabetes awareness yet allow public institutions to do nothing.
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I beg your pardon? Who and where are the people they are making aware? Where would the likes of me, get access to this?
 
I found the same in bournemouth hospital, admitted for high bgs but the food wouldn’t help with sorting that. Couldn’t see how you could get your 5 fruit and veg a day as an inpatient at all.
 
My sisters' just had a lengthy stay in Manchester Royal Infirmary and the food was dire, one night cauliflower cheese but they'd run out of cheese and she couldn't get her fork in the cauliflower. o_O She tried the different menus, halal etc which were a bit better, but preferred hubby bringing in sandwiches. They saved her leg which is the main thing, she's just daily at outpatients for the next six weeks.
 
I look forward to the implementation of those blueprints. It is where we should now be anyway.

Who'd have though food is part of our health regime? (Ironic comment)
 
When I was diagnosed and in hospital i was told to limit carbs for now while they were getting my blood surger down but was being fed things like roast dinners 'lanusage ,qince.And for pudding things like rice pudding ice cream talk about mix messages
 
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