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hospital food!!!

H

hdragon

Member
Messages
8
Type of diabetes
Type 1
Treatment type
Insulin
I am not surprised that I am not alone in the shock at what the limitations and information when it comes to the food when we stay in hospitals. I have had a few run ins with staff over the lack of information both on the menu and that they have if anyone dares ask a simple question. I over heard a young lady ask about the contents of a plain omelette. the server "did not have a clue as to how they were made" . that horrified me but I was able to give some help as I have seen how well the menus' have improved over the last 30 years. now we can choose where once upon a time I was told all I could have to increase the carb content was a huge pile of mashed potatoes'! please be a little patient as a patient or just go pre-paired and get someone to bring in a little selection of snacks that you can survive on . it is slowly getting better but it is the information that is the slowest at being printed on these menus'.
 
Hospitals are the very place where nutrition needs to be carefully targeted, carefully documented, and of the right quality.
 
It wouldn't harm them to include the carb value so we can bolus accordingly, last time I was an inpatient the food was OK and I didn't have any issues with eating it.
 
My local hospital is great at feeding patients and it has been shown in the local papers and a Manchester one, they were even on the local news when new kitchens were installed (although they coped very well beforehand) I have been an inpatient several times and never had a complaint. The soups are fantastic and the meals very appetising though small, they are made daily by the chef with fresh ingriedients. The last time I was there, late one night somebody said they were hungry and a male nurse brought some sandwiches which had been in the fridge, he offered them round and as I put my hand out he said 'no no you are diabetic and this is white bread' I have no complaints but agree all hospital food should be nutritious appetising and suitable for the patient
 
I think it can be a bit 'hit and miss' really @noblehead.
Most of the stuff in food bank use is highly processed carbs. If I had no other source of food and was really hungry then I guess I would be grateful. It depends on how they are interpreting 'malnourished'. It appears to me that in this context they mean underweight and needing to bulk up with 'empty calories'. For many with T2 the sort of highly processed carb food in food banks would not be good for their BG levels. T2s generally do not bolus so the amount of processed carb foods is not that nutritious for them.

As for the food for inpatients, in my experience, it is also mainly processed food, often cooked elsewhere, and microwaved on the premises. Not what I would choose to eat, but for some patients it is better quality food than they have at home.
 
Sounds better than my last stay in hospital.
Breakfast was cornflakes, or porridge. The porridge was in fact Reddybrek, which the ward orderly smothered with sugar without asking me. Lunch was soup, from a packet, which hadn't been mixed properly and had lumps of the soup powder in it. Dinner was a curry with rice. Tablespoon of curry on a dinner plate of rice. Worse still, it was garnished with slices of tomato, even though my notes stated I was allergic, and had already had an allergic reaction to meds while in there. When I pointed it out to the ward orderly, she dug her acrylic nails into the tomato slices to flick them off the the dinner, then handed it to me expecting me to be grateful.
As I said previously, it can be hit and miss. I had to be seen to be eating normally before I was allowed home, so my family brought food for me. Not everyone is fortunate to have family who are able to do that. I pity them, and elderly, and those not able to speak out.
 
@Pipp, my reply was to the OP's post and the point about including the nutritional information on the menu's, much like the OP who is type 1 it makes life much easier for us when we inject.

But yes I agree with your points, if your hungry and in desperate need of food then your not going to be choosy which foods you are offered.
 
It would, indeed be useful to all patients to have nutritional information on the menu information.
That the person serving the plain omelette the OP mentioned did not know how what a plain omelette is made of is alarming to say the least.
My point regarding the food bank set up at Tameside hospital illustrates the lack of knowledge of hospital staff if the processed food, mainly carbs, is regarded as useful for malnourished people.
 
Pipp said:
It would, indeed be useful to all patients to have nutritional information on the menu information.
Click to expand...

I was quite firmly told by the dietician that only 10% of people going into hospital need the nutritional information and no room on the menu for it but if you must have it, then ask the nurses as by law the info must be provided and they do have the info........... Great as if the nurses hadn't got anything better to do with their time.
 
Pleased I don't have to use your hospital then. I never thought that some hospitals might not have kitchens and the meals must be brought from outside caterers, ugh no wonder people complain and cup a soups Good nutrition is part of good recovery and it's disgusting that hospitals don't sem to know that. That ward orderly had no right putting her fingers on food, wanted or not it's a bug risk. I was a volunteer at my hospital and had a hand gel bottle on the tea trolley, when offering patients a biscuit we handed them over rather than patients putting their hand in the box and causing x infection.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
When my mother was in a private ward at Guy's she got proper food. When my Pa was in a private hospital in Kent, he even got wine with dinner. So it's not about the Eat Well plate, it's about cost.

As to the food bank, it's supposed to be a supportive community initiative from the hospital. When a family member worked in a big NHS hospital in London, they had a drive for clothing, so that they could hand out clothes to the homeless, the poor and to refugees in UK - and surgeons doing volunteer stints abroad, took them to refugee camps.

The stark truth is, that some people, however hard they work, find it a struggle to feed themselves, especially if they have children and or debts. It was always so. People cannot expect to earn £40k, sweeping the roads or putting lids on ready meals.

If you want a high salary you have to (a) work hard at school and or college to convince an employer that you are worth it or (b) work your way up from the bottom and really really graft (c) start your own business or (d) get into crime and always risk prison and your assets being seized.

Some people choose to cut corners on food, in order to fund drugs, booze, satellite TV, whatever - and that's their choice. It may not be a good one long term though when the years of eating very cheap food catch up with them.

Cheap, unhealthy food is a fact of life. Good food costs money and however much I, or anyone else, believes that it shouldn't, it does.

The hospital believes that it is doing something useful by giving people food. If it stops an old person from being cold or a parent or child from being hungry, it is the right thing to do.

It's not the hospital's fault that agribusiness and food manufacturers churn out cheap rubbish and make a whopping profit on it.
 
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