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Why can't hospitals understand diet and diabetes?

One of the difficulties is that we have differing approaches to our diabetes diets - so it would be difficult for a hospital to get it right for all of us.

Blood glucose levels could go up anyway, simply because we are ill or anxious.

I think it would be sensible to apply slightly different standards to our desired readings if it is just for a couple of days.
Even the hospital will want to moniter that it doesn't reach worrying levels.
 
This all started because a day patient was upset about the food offered. One day is not going to make a lot of difference to any one's blood sugar results. Be thankful that they offered something. Both times that I have had an angiogram I have been offered a sandwich afterwards. Having fasted overnight and being seen late afternoon meant that I would gladly have eaten anything that was offered.

I recently spent 10 days in hospital and selected food that was agreeable to me whether it was classed as diabetic or not. There was always a salad to fall back on. It is quite easy to leave food on the side of the plate that is not suitable for you personally and this whole thread seems to be making a mountain out of a molehill.
Although the nurses that looked after me did not know a great deal about diabetes they took my blood sugars frequently. These were recorded for the Dr. to see and when it jumped one day they called a Dr. to see me. Stress and anxiety was the problem because I had been diagnosed with cancer that day and was upset. Further tests proved the diagnosis to be wrong thankfully. I think there are more things to worry about in this world than some food that doesn't suit you personally but can be eaten by many diabetics without any adverse effects. How ever would you cope with a longer stay?

Catherine.
 
Well, first of all, apologies to those I have clearly upset with my post! I obviously did not mean to suggest that one sandwich was going to kill anyone! Nor that there is a 'diabetic' diet that all can follow. There isn't.
I have eaten the 'snack meal' at the hospital before and I'm obviously still walking. It is, however, a very high carb intensive meal, which a lot of diabetics have to keep an eye on. Those lucky ones who can eat bread, biscuits and crisps without affecting their bloods I am deeply envious of! I, unfortunately am not one.
I also did not mean to offend hospital staff! It's the catering I dislike, whether I was diabetic or not.
Anyway, apologies.
 
Lesley, I don’t think that there is any real need for apologies as you made a perfectly valid point. It doesn’t take much to upset anyone incidentally but I think that what was expressed here was merely a difference of opinion.

It shouldn’t take a genius to see that food is as important in some cases as medicine and providing a good choice and delivering what is ordered should not require education at degree level since it ought to be basic common sense. :roll:
 
I totally agree with Synonym, there's no need for you to apologise at all.
I for one thought your post was right on the money and the diet you were offered was scandalously poor for a diabetic - completely incompatible with good bg control or healthy insulin dosing.
I hope they can fast-track you towards your dietetic qualification since you seem to understand the important issues better than many in your future profession!
Best of luck with it,

fergus
 
lesley - one thing as a dietitin you will soon learn that you will have to thick skinned!!

By the way fergus you cannot fast track to become a Dietitian - takes 4 years or 5 if you have a first degree in say Biochem or similar.
 
Our hospital frequently fail when it comes to presentation and at times quality of the cooking of the foods that they offer, most of this is directly due to mass catering, preparation off site ect.. This is something that warrants debates and complaints.

Devising a suitable menu for a hospital is pretty complex and not just about what choices available, you’ve got a cost consideration (only so much in the purse) you’ve got to include foods that will cover many different dietary needs as possible in its basic structure, to limited the need to diverse off the menu (this costs money) You have to consider it nutrient make up...

One of the problems that the menu planner will have to over-come, is that most people in hospital are actually unwell, and high percentage will be older patients etc, When people are unwell and/or recovering from operations, they tend not to have much of a appetite so all foods that are offered need to give good nutrition in a small quantity, because you are looking to give the patient the correct nutrients that promote a quick recovery physically..

Hospital portions sizes are pretty small, you make think that they are going to be really high carb count, but in truth they are not a hospital portion size of fish and chips is nowhere near that of a chip shop! One of the reasons why the portion sizes are small is because in the main most patients will be unable to eat this amount, so to increase it would incur more cost and higher wastage.. .
One of the problems with a low carb diet, is even though it’s high in protein (which is good for repair) it would be difficult to ensure that patients actually eat enough to that enabled both to maintain the body and provide the extra needed for the individual to recover. This would be it’s likely down fall...

Then the longer some-one take to recovery the longer they are holding a bed pushing costs up further and creating longer waiting lists.

And its one job I wouldn't like to do (I've menu planed for 80 elderly residents in the past) and what ever you do it's a case of you be dammed by some-one because you haven't catered to there specificatiions and met there tastes etc etc..
 
My parents in the UK have been in and out of hospital the last few years and I've been quite impressed by the selection they've had... but it does seem vary from day to day as to the quality that arrives !
My meal choice as a diabetic when first diagnosed in France were initially always supervised by the dietitian included the weight of the starchy carbs stated, large quantiites of veg, some fruit, some dairy and usually a green salad dressed with olive oil, smallish portions of fish or meat. A conventional 'diabetic' diet.
On the whole meals have always been good quality ,same on diabetes courses where the dietitian sometimes cooks it herself,( excellent lunch of Saumonette (dogfish or' rock salmon')in a saffron sauce, salad and rice on the last course ) BUT the budget is probably higher because inpatients here pay 16€ a day towards board and lodging ...most frequently covered by 'top up insurance'. I wonder how many in the UK would be prepared to contribute to the cost of their food in hospital?
 
Phoenix

On the whole given all the efforts of the super dietician and the dispiriting fact that the kitchens still could not get it right I would prefer to organise my own as the angst is so much less.

Your french hospital menu sounded great but could they deliver in that way here? I would be prepared to contribute to my food costs as an inpatient but only if there was something there that I could tolerate and would enjoy. The quality would have to be guaranteed and perhaps it would be as there would inevitably be a notion of accountability - but probably not.

Methinks it could be a can of worms! (The situation not necessarily the food! :lol: )
 
The NHS Institute for Innovation, based at the University of Warwick, has recently undertaken a study and project called 'Think Glucose' which they hoped to roll out to all of the NHS hospitals. Unfortunately, the Institute is not solely funded by the government and has to be funded by selling it's packages to the health service. Not enough hospitals took up the package, resulting in the project being curtailed.

The main aim of this was to have every patient tested for glucose on admission and training and appropriate steps taken to ensure that a) the result is prominently displayed on their records, whether positive for diabetes or not, so that everyone looking at the notes throughout treatment will be aware of the situation, b) an awareness of the needs of diabetics is prevalent amongst all staff, including catering staff, and that the patient, if already diagnosed on admission, is allowed to monitor and manage their own glucose levels if at all possible.

The lack of take-up is lamentable because, although it would cost the hospital money in the first instance, it has been proved that diabetics spend, on average, more days as inpatients than non-diabetics, taking longer to get over illness and surgery and so costing more in the long run. Also, non-diagnosed diabetics present with complications which can take some time to investigate. I was pleased that, at last, something was being done but the lack of response from the hospital trusts just shows that it is all about money and not about people.
 
casamorena said:
I was pleased that, at last, something was being done but the lack of response from the hospital trusts just shows that it is all about money and not about people.
Click to expand...
As most uf us are aware, I'm afraid!

For me personally it took a long time before I managed to get tested and I believe it was part of the penny pinching which is ruled by 'if you have no diagnosis you do not require treatment'. False economy in every case. :roll:
 
In our hospital quite a lot of people get their 'other halves' to bring in hot takeaways. When I was in overnight a few months ago one chap who was in for a week or more as he'd had a new kneecap got his wife to bring a chicken curry and rice from the local chinese. I was starving as no one expected me to be staying in so had no visitors nor money to buy owt lol. Usually in the past though I've always got my wife to bring me in ham & tomato sarnies, but I must say that this last time I was in the food was cooked properly, it was hot which was a first from other times, and there was a good choice. To be honest I didn't follow my diet while there I enjoyed what they had. The previous time I was in our bay was the last one and by the time we got served it was cold, congealed, and something I wouldn't give my dog, I relied on the wife's visits to stop starving to death from lack of food, not that that would happen though lol
 
On my last few stays at my local hospital I found the food inedible, a portion of grey coloured mashed potato some overcooked diced mixed veg and some fatty meat of dubious origin, reheated and dished up by the contract cleaners, so in the morning a young lady would be cleaning blood and guts from round the beds and then come lunch time the same young lady would be dishing up the lunch time meal, made me feel quite sick....

If it hadn't been for the sandwiches and fruit my wife brought in I would have starved.

The nursing staff were fantastic, the food was truly pitiful.

Why would the hospital think that a cleaning company would be best placed to handle the catering as well, just down to money I guess and multi tasking cleaners. :cry:
 
The muck that is so often described and served up as "food" defies belief sometimes. I make a point of being totally and utterly involved in my own personal care at all times, just to avoid the possibility of having to be admitted to hospital for anything at all. On the few occasions this has been unavoidable however, it has always frustrated me that no dietary information is available, e.g. for the purposes of carb counting, even on a diabetic ward!
 
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