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Coke and chocolate in vending machines in hospital

Should they serve coke and chocolate in vending machines in hospital?

  • Yes

    Votes: 23 40.4%

  • No

    Votes: 23 40.4%

  • Not sure / it depends

    Votes: 11 19.3%
  • Total voters
    57
It's hospital food that needs looking at. It's not much fun when your only choice for breakfast is either cornflakes with skinny milk or a slice of white bread and marmalade, plus orange juice. Not everyone can get out of bed to visit the canteen for a fry up.
 
When you look at the menu in a hospital, like mine, the recommended diabetic meals are chocked full of carbs! Not just low ones!
 
Brunneria said:
The problem is that if the hospital agreed to only have 'healthy options' in their vending machines, then they wouldn't sell much (profits would plummet) and they would use orthodox healthy eating ideas - high carb whole grain and low fat. That would be worse for my blood glucose levels than a bar of chocolate.
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Good point !
Their idea of healthy eating is definitely unhealthy for me ! :eek: On my recent visit to outpatients I was there for much longer than anticipated (when will I learn ? :rolleyes: ) and so needed to eat. There was nothing at all in the cafeteria or the vending machines that I would normally consider eating.:(

Signy
 
I don't think they should be banned but I would hope hospitals would only stock the more healthy drinks/foods. Just as people have the choice in what to buy, hospital management have the choice in what they vend. I don't agree that as they contribute to hospital profits that's OK; it isn't. Do we just let people get fatter and fatter so they can have choice; I don't think so.
 
nosher8355 said:
A
Hospitals are there to treat you not look after you? Tell me I'm wrong! Lol!
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That explains why my poor old mum was so badly dehydrated when she was last in hospital. There was nobody to look after her or in fact care for her. Just as well the family was there enough to make sure she at least got to a couple of cups a tea a day down her neck. I've decided that I'll never need Digitas when I get old, just a stay in hospital.
 
In my bay there was an elderly gentleman with T2 diabetes, only awake at meal times, and he was always given, no choice, mashed potato with his meals and given Robinsons orange squash for his drink, even when he was awake, he wasn't!
The nurse wondered why his bloods were high!!
Because I wasn't restricted, I could do or get for myself anything I wanted but my fellow inmates got lucky if the buzzer worked or they seen a nurse within ten minutes! Just not enough staff! Especially for a ward full of geriatrics!
 
nosher8355 said:
In my bay there was an elderly gentleman with T2 diabetes, only awake at meal times, and he was always given, no choice, mashed potato with his meals and given Robinsons orange squash for his drink, even when he was awake, he wasn't!
The nurse wondered why his bloods were high!!
Because I wasn't restricted, I could do or get for myself anything I wanted but my fellow inmates got lucky if the buzzer worked or they seen a nurse within ten minutes! Just not enough staff! Especially for a ward full of geriatrics!
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Don't get me started on the subject of geriatric treatment..
I've seen enough to loose my faith in the NHS.
 
Chocolate and coke are a godsend if the lucozade doesn't work for me. Hospitals generally don't understand diabetes unless that's their area. I had to argue with a nurse when I had my baby that if she took away the fruit carbohydrate in my meal because I had had glucose for my hypo exactly the same thing would happen again in the next few hours. I usually just ask them to leave me to it and I will sort it myself
 
Heatherirvine said:
Chocolate and coke are a godsend if the lucozade doesn't work for me. Hospitals generally don't understand diabetes unless that's their area. I had to argue with a nurse when I had my baby that if she took away the fruit carbohydrate in my meal because I had had glucose for my hypo exactly the same thing would happen again in the next few hours. I usually just ask them to leave me to it and I will sort it myself
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And me! Ha!
 
i just get bored of this whole nanny state thing. We are adults and should be able to make adult decisions, from everything from what job we do to what rubbish we do or do not put into our mouths. Yes a hospital is meant to be a healthy place, a place to get better, but surely we should be smart enough to know what is good for us and what is not without being so controlled.
what about the visitors too?when i was in hospital last year my husband would come to visit me straight after a 14 hour shift, he would grab a drink and choc bar on way to me from the vending machine to keep him going for the hour before he went home and did himself a proper meal. I doubt very much an apple or banana would gave kept him happy, however bad that is!

I just wish people would stop blaming what is around them, stop making bad choices and realise we dont want it to turn into a nanny state and people need to learn self control first and foremost.
 
actually just had a really bad thought, when the hospital overdosed me on insulin it was the vending machine that probably saved my life ;) i do remember one nurse saying they had raided it when i was struggling to keep down the lucozade !
 
Omg how the hell does that even happen! Check then check again we get trained in work with giving insulin (crazy but I need training to give insulin when I have had diabetes for 33 years).
 
Heatherirvine said:
Omg how the hell does that even happen! Check then check again we get trained in work with giving insulin (crazy but I need training to give insulin when I have had diabetes for 33 years).
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hi heather, you are going to love this, not one person on maternity on the weekend i was admitted knew how to draw or administer insulin (i have done a few posts about what happened to me prior) but basically I was newly diagnosed, i came off insulin drip, two snr midwives came to show me how to inject (without ANY knowledge) and they gave me 100units, not 10. i ended up in HDU within 10 mins of it being administered but it was scary! Especially as I was 20 weeks pregnant after 2 m/c's. So I am kind of thankful for the odd naughty vending machine ;) x
 
ShelleyHarris1981 said:
i just get bored of this whole nanny state thing. We are adults and should be able to make adult decisions, from everything from what job we do to what rubbish we do or do not put into our mouths. Yes a hospital is meant to be a healthy place, a place to get better, but surely we should be smart enough to know what is good for us and what is not without being so controlled.
what about the visitors too?when i was in hospital last year my husband would come to visit me straight after a 14 hour shift, he would grab a drink and choc bar on way to me from the vending machine to keep him going for the hour before he went home and did himself a proper meal. I doubt very much an apple or banana would gave kept him happy, however bad that is!

I just wish people would stop blaming what is around them, stop making bad choices and realise we dont want it to turn into a nanny state and people need to learn self control first and foremost.
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An awful lot of patients in hospital don't know or realising what they are given (no choice) despite given a menu, in my experience they are given food , that shouldn't be given to diabetics but because the menu recommends the food for diabetics that is what they are given, the food guidelines on the menu in my hospital would have seen me really poorly and greviously having hypers then hypos. And especially T1 diabetics!
 
ShelleyHarris1981 said:
hi heather, you are going to love this, not one person on maternity on the weekend i was admitted knew how to draw or administer insulin (i have done a few posts about what happened to me prior) but basically I was newly diagnosed, i came off insulin drip, two snr midwives came to show me how to inject (without ANY knowledge) and they gave me 100units, not 10. i ended up in HDU within 10 mins of it being administered but it was scary! Especially as I was 20 weeks pregnant after 2 m/c's. So I am kind of thankful for the odd naughty vending machine ;) x
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I hope they got sacked they could have killed you! I take about 30 units a day on my pump so that's nearly 4 days worth, your so lucky you didn't end up with a life changing brain injury. On what planet are these medical staff trained. Gggrrrr I just can't believe the incompetence.
 
Heatherirvine said:
Chocolate and coke are a godsend if the lucozade doesn't work for me. Hospitals generally don't understand diabetes unless that's their area. I had to argue with a nurse when I had my baby that if she took away the fruit carbohydrate in my meal because I had had glucose for my hypo exactly the same thing would happen again in the next few hours. I usually just ask them to leave me to it and I will sort it myself
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Any power or sugar drink is potential hell for me! Having a glucose test and I started having a hypo, the sister more or less ordered me to drink this sport lucozade. I objected cos I knew what would happen. It is not the answer for me! The amount of bad sugars in these drinks are dangerous!

I always remember most visitors taking original lucozade into hospital for their sick family or friends,
It was suppose to help recovery!!!!
 
It is different
nosher8355 said:
Any power or sugar drink is potential hell for me! Having a glucose test and I started having a hypo, the sister more or less ordered me to drink this sport lucozade. I objected cos I knew what would happen. It is not the answer for me! The amount of bad sugars in these drinks are dangerous!

I always remember most visitors taking original lucozade into hospital for their sick family or friends,
It was suppose to help recovery!!!!
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It is different for diabetics than it is for you Nosher:p
 
nosher8355 said:
Any power or sugar drink is potential hell for me! Having a glucose test and I started having a hypo, the sister more or less ordered me to drink this sport lucozade. I objected cos I knew what would happen. It is not the answer for me! The amount of bad sugars in these drinks are dangerous!

I always remember most visitors taking original lucozade into hospital for their sick family or friends,
It was suppose to help recovery!!!!
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Only thing that seems to work quick enough for me as I have rapid onset hypoglycaemia with NO symptoms so I can function very well with a 1.2 blood sugar which is so unbelievably dangerous. I have constant glucose monitors at the moment which are a help but it still doesn't always help as it drops so quickly my cognitive function has usually gone by the time the sensor picks up the low bm (although it has saved visits from the ambulance service). Also it should only be the original lucozade they offer as the carbohydrate in the others isn't as high and it doesn't work as quick. I have tried dextrosol, glucose gel, sugar it seems to work best for me. What do you find is best for you?
 
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