In this article I write about the quality, or lack of it, in the food that is served in some of the UK hospitals. My nan has recently died in hospital which has been very upsetting for my family. She was hit by one of the famous hospital bugs and became very weak. She was in need of some decent food which would have helped to build up her strength. What she received was basically so poor and tasteless that she found it hard to eat.
Despite many attempts by various members of the family to pursuade her to eat more, she could not stomach it and kept saying that it the food had no taste and that it was disgusting. I have to admit that it was not exactly tempting when I saw what was being dished out.
In the UK we are very lucky in the standard of our hospitals when you compare it to many other countries in the world. Our country is very rich but a lot of this cash is being wasted on certain projects. Surely people in our hospitals deserve a much higher standard of food, food which they can look forward to eat.
I have recently watched a program about how Jamie Oliver is trying to improve the standard of food in schools throughout the UK. This is a very worthwhile project and as a father of two children myself, I am more than aware that the canteen food served in most schools is not up to scratch. At the schools where my own children attend, the parents have the option of paying for these meals or they can make their child a packed lunch. We choose the packed lunch option.
In hospitals there is no such option. I would have loved to have been able to cook some food for my nan, which I could then have taken to her when I visited. I would have also liked to have taken some cleaning products as the place could have done with some tender loving care as well as a lick of paint.
A message to Jamie Oliver, you are doing a sterling job but please could you turn your attention to the hospitals next!
A message to Tony Blair, stop wasting money killing our troops in Iraq and start looking after your own!
I am not trying to say that my nan would have survived if the standard of food had been better in the hospital where she spent her final days. What I am trying to say is that I hope it improves in a big way before I have to spend any time there.