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diabetic diets in hospital

G

gems_goldet

Newbie
Hi there,
I'm a (non-diabetic) medical student currently researching the diets diabetic patients in hospital have because it has come to my attention that, for some, it is anywhere from poor to totally uncontrolled. I was wondering if anyone knew of any hopsital in the UK where they had had a good experience with the food they were served: i.e. where they thought that they were offered food that was suitable in the context of their condition and where they thought that their Diabetes was taken into account when chosing their meals.
Thanks in advance.
 
I'd love to give you a positive reply but unfortunately I cant ! I live in Bury Lancashire and my local hospital food is a nightmare for Diabetics. I've been T1 for 18 years, 4 years ago I was lucky enough to be given an Insulin pump. I've had many stays in Hospital but by far the worst was whilst I was pregnant with my last and finally baby (number 3) 6 years ago, I contracted E-Collie and went into DKA resulting in premature labour at 21 weeks, thankfully they managed to stop the labour but I HAD to stay in hospital for 4 months !! The food was so bad I actually lost 2 stones in weight, Breakfast wasn't a problem nice and healthy Weetabix Porridge etc Lunch consisted of a warm meal which was ok although I had to laugh when a huge jacket potato turned up with no filling or butter even though id ordered some tuna to accompany it ?? Evening meal was a Sandwich and either a piece of fruit or pot of diabetic ice cream, Not both! There was no healthy snacks in between although there was the odd cup of tea, Horlicks or Hot chocolate.
One evening I ended up back on the delivery suit and my consultant actually went to his dorm and made me his microwavable lasagne as all id eaten all day was a ham sandwich!!!! It got so bad that my Diabetic Consultant had to prescribe me "Supper" I kid you not !!! The staff would come round in the evening and would refuse me a biscuit or a slice of toast then I would hypo in the night. Hence the "Prescribed Supper" Thankfully my family and friends would sneak me warm sandwiches , smoothies even full Sunday Roasts in.
Good Luck with you're study
xx
 
I live i Ireland and have not stayed in hospital for a few years but my experiences were mixed. Breakfast was always a choice between weetabix, porridge (resembling concrete mix!) or cornflakes. I always wondered why cornflakes as the hospital dietician would have a coronary if I had them. The lunch and supper options were diabetes appropriate but generally tasteless. At the time I used to snack before Lantus and the nurses always got me coffee and toast, much to the envy pf other patients! Every meal included quite a lot of carbs. At the time I didn't carb count or restrict carbs but I would struggle with the menu now

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New Cross Hospital provide a decent choice, even if it's not the best in the world! (Or the West Midlands). Hospital food is generally mushy, microved, school dinner standard pap, but they cooked stuff specifically for me and I'd give them an 8/10 for diet specified food and a 7/10 for enjoyment levels, but, that said, they're only as good as the supplier and their hands are tied, to a certain extent.
 
Also, I think patients should be aware that they can take in their own food if needs be and be kept in your locker or the fridge, for anyone who is less than gruntled with the cooking competencies.
 
ive had a mixed bag,

Poole hospital is absolutely amazing,
when my other half was in the maternity ward for a fortnight after my baby was born. they made sure i was well looked after as well! i got meals and snacks every day and they listened to what i needed/wanted each time, and to top it off, arranged for a meter and strips to be stored by the bed.

the Royal Surrey in Guildford tho, is truly ABYSMAL. i have had the misfortune of both being treated there, and working in the kitchen as a temp.

good gods never again!
 
My local hospital isn't very good, but they do give patients a choice. However, I'm aware [from voluntary work there] that many diabetic patients have faith in the little letter "D" on the menus. To me those meals, which are low fat in the main, would be far too high in carbs for a diabetic who is not getting much exercise.
I believe, only from what I've heard, that Ipswich Hospital has reduced carb meals for diabetics. They do, of course have Gerry Rayman to guide them.
As to poor control, much of that is down to nursing staff having very little idea of what good control is. They seem quite happy to get blood glucose readings of anywhere up to 20 in their numbers. Where the medical staff know that 5 is normal for non-diabetics, they stand a chance. Not to mention that nursing staff are terrified of BGs lower than 4! Icall it "hypo panic!"
if you've read the survey figures published recently, you'll know that poor to abysmal control is more the rule than the exception.I think Britain is particularly bad compared with other similar countries.
Hana
 
cricketwidow said:
I'd love to give you a positive reply but unfortunately I cant ! I live in Bury Lancashire and my local hospital food is a nightmare for Diabetics.
xx
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If it is the same one as I was in (<blank>field) it was horrendous, stodgy, carby food(bakewell tart subsituted for fruit etc), and nothing but sandwiches on Sundays! Wife ended up bringing in salad "red cross parcels" so I could survive.
Nurses were sympathetic but catering dept were pathetic!! :evil:
 
Hi All .

In march when had my shoulder debrided I had really good care,options and choice .
My nurse even went down to the kitchen to pick up my choice of lunch/tea :thumbup:
I ordered a fresh free range egg salad with freshly prepared fruit cocktail for my dessert [lunchtime]
Tea was a very lean ham and cottage cheese salad , again 'my' own choice .
Breakfast was a problem as I cant tollerate porridge or cereals .
So had a small brown bun with 'proper butter on' and my 2 coffee's .

With taking in my prepared Hospital Passport stating my dietry needs and food intollerances ,
they couldnt do enough to help and totally accepted and understood my needs too :thumbup:

I also chose to administer and 'keep my own insulin on me' .
All I needed was assistance to do it . [was one handed/armed after 'op']
They were happy to let me and agreed the Hospital Passport helped them too .
In these you can clarify and state your wishes and needs in them .
They are available free from IDDT .
Sometimes having things in 'writing in an Passport' is far more effective than just spoken words ?
The top staff nurse in charge of my ward - did comment- oh you have come well prepared !

Hope this can help .

Anna .
 
I was in hospital at the end of January with a Non STEMI, basically a heart attack, I was put on a sliding scale intra veinous insulin, the hospital was derriFord in Plymouth, and the food was absolutely disgusting, one evening I ordered lasagne, and when the meal turned up, ALL THAT WAS ON THE PLATE WAS A MATCH BOX SIZED PIECE OF LASAGNE, NOTHING ELSE AT ALL

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I don't know if you're specifically looking for NHS or private hospitals, but I've stayed twice at the London Clinic and they were superb. They could obviously tell after several questions that I was a well controlled Type 1 diabetic, they gave me their menu and I was left to my own devices and trusted with my choices. So basically I was able to eat "normal" food and adjust my insulin accordingly. The food was amazing too, but then I guess that's the difference between private and NHS care. Thank goodness for medical insurance!
 
sorry, I forgot to add i an type 2, non insulin, I was being pumped with insulin, and also being given my medication, metformin, gliclazide etc and when the nursing staff were doing by blood glucose tests in was getting results of 18-22 mmol, which I never get when on my tablets alone, then I realised the staff were handling the test strips with bare hands, and holding the strips at the ends so I asked one of the nurses if I could do my own tests using their equipment, and she asked me why I felt the need to do my own tests, when I told her they were handling the tests strips incorrectly, and I thought my results were wrong because the strips were being contaminated, she put the complete test kits on my bed, and said "would you like me to get you a nurses uniform, seeing as you think you can do my job better than me"

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Unfortunately there are as many diabetic diets as there are diabetics so to find a hospital that would cater for a "diabetic" would be totally open to your opinion of what a diabetic diet should be.

You then ask about whether our "condition" is taken into account when choosing our meals as if there is a choice of meals available within NHS hospitals.

In my experience of my local hospital, which coincidently has the dubious honour of being the first NHS hospital to be declared bankrupt*, the food is inedible for anyone least of all for most diabetics.

I survived my experience of their intensive care unit mainly due to the excellent care I received from the medical staff there and the fact that the nurses allowed me to order breakfast from the restaurant rather than from the cleaning company who have the catering contract as well, I have no idea who paid for this breakfast but I assume it was thought it would be of benefit in helping critically ill patients to recover better by giving them an edible breakfast. And I also thank my wife who brought in my lunch and evening meals.

On the two medical wards I was unlucky enough to have to stay on the meals were cooked off site and re heated and dished out by the cleaners who had been cleaning the wards 10 minutes earlier, and when I say that those meals were inedible I am being truthful. And of course on the ordinary wards I wasnt lucky enough to be allowed to "choose" a breakfast from the hospital restaurant.

I think that you will soon discover that sorting out the cash strapped NHS is going to have a much higher priority than arranging a choice of menus in hospitals that are being run completely independently of each other, to get one hospital trust to agree to give their patients a choice would be hard enough to but to roll out a nation wide initiative would be impossible under the current disjointed system.

* The South London Trust is to be broken up and some services will no doubt have to close, my local hospital is to be taken over by Kings Trust The former Kings College Hospital at Denmark Hill assuming the government give Kings what their want financially, I assume it will go ahead as they are currently taking space in local supermarkets telling the locals what a great new service we will have under Kings. You know the better services and better uses of the available resources rubbish :thumbdown:
In the words of Dads Army's Private James Fraser "were all doomed"
I would add that the staff at the Pru as it affectionately known are doing a great job under almost intolerable conditions due to the lack of cash and the Private Health Initiative which is taking the lions share of what little money is available. All those responsible for these PHI's should IMHO be charged with fraud and imprisoned for life for what they have done to our local hospital and others up and down the country.
Kings to acquire Princes Royal University Hospital - http://www.kch.nhs.uk/news/public/news/view/11622

On the other hand I may just be a cynic and this government will be remembered for their outstanding contribution to NHS services, what do you think?

Sorry if this answer doesnt help your research at all but you touched a nerve
 
Kat100 said:
Do we really have a NHS that cares....
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Yes we do, unfortunately we have had successive governments that have robbed it of its soul and heart.

I truly believe that the vast majority of the people working within the NHS are sincere and have their patients best interests at heart, I doubt that they are many doctors or nurses that work in our hospitals that do so for any other reason than to help their patients. Unfortunately the same can not be said for the vast majority of politicians today who seem to be in it purely for fame and fortune.
 
Dear all,
Thanks ever so much for your posts, very informative indeed. This research was born out of an encounter I had with a patient a few weeks ago who mentioned to me that he was diabetic and was being offered all sorts of food (like cake and juice) that he thought completely inappropriate in the management of his diabetes. In my hospital, this is how it works: you get a menu that you can chose from (nowhere is there any indication of the glycaemic index on the menu) then that goes to the catering staff who know absolutely nothing about your medical history. If you're good at managing your diabetes, and if there happen to be diabetes-appropriate options and if the catering staff stick strictly to what you ordered, this works fine. But you can see that there's a lot of 'ifs' in that sentence. So the idea was to sound out the patients and nurses in my hospital to try to find out where things were going wrong when this was the case and how practice can be improved. To that end, if would be useful to know if there were an NHS hospital in the UK were diets were managed better so that I had a standard to which a comparison might be made.
Hana DR: thanks very much for your post. I was particularly interested to read that your hospital had a little "D" on the menu (that is not the case in my hospital and was actually a simple measure that I thought might be appropriate - though I hear what your saying about the fact that the D may in fact be misplaced). May I ask what hospital you are referring to?
Sid Bonkers: enormous thanks for your post - I really appreciated it. Firstly I wanted to apologise if my choice of language was/is inappropriate/patronising. I really did not mean to offend. And I can completely understand that my bringing up this issue may seem fairly naïve. I also totally take on board the notion that there is no such thing as one sole diabetic diet. Patients in my hospital do receive a choice on their menu and options will be marked as V (vegetarian), Hallal, contains nuts, milk gluten free etc... and some of these options must be more appropriate in general terms than others for patients with diabetes. That said, I'm aware that this may well sound rather paternalistic of me. My idea here was not to try to remove choice from those who manage their diabetes well but to help guide those who, for example, are newly diagnosed. I hope that does not sound to condescending, I assure you it is not meant as such.

Thanks very much again to you all.
 
:thumbdown: :thumbdown: :thumbdown: i am a type 2 diabetic and also work in a hospital which is being broken up with Lewisham NHS trust is going to take over i so hope that the food choice will improve for both diabetics and non diabetics , the company that supply's the food we are told there is nothing on the menu that a diabetic cannot eat. lets hope the food gets better
 
Of course it's true thay people with diabetes can eat anything on any menu. It's just that the vast majority would prefer not to feel like complete **** after eating so choose not to!

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Conquest hospital st Leonard's on sea-not good. Also (not diabetes related) I asked for no fish specifically, the nurse gave me fish, walked away and I didn't see her for half an hour, I couldn't move as I'd had a hip replacement that morning and had no buzzer that I could reach and when she came back there was no food left. Hypo ensued. (So I guess it's related!)


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