Unfortunately, hospital food has always had a bad press and it continues to date, the majority is attributed to poor budgets and a lack of passion for producing high standards of food.
One of the most detrimental aspects was the introduction of the tendering and outsourcing the service leading to the closure of some hospital kitchens. This created the need for frozen or chilled meals to be used and ended the flexibility of the meal served, high meal cost and the use of alien ingredients which are not normally used in a production in house kitchen; in my opinion the overall quality suffered.
Over the years we have had numerous campaigns and Government led panels which have made hardly any difference to the quality of the patient meal. I refer to “better hospital food with Lloyd Grossman, Celebrity chefs and the latest 2014 hospital food panel report which did nothing to improve food locally.
One standard was the use of the “Governments buying standards” which are a base for sustainability but not universally used as Hospital trusts operate independently not only for procurement but for the allocation of budgets and catering is always the poorer. In my opinion the outsourced frozen meals from the private sector, profit comes first, and this is shown in the procurement of food ingredients in recipes showing large amounts of sugar, fat and salt.
We have just experienced the 2nd edition of the British Dietetic Association`s Digest on nutrition and hydration a ridiculous 224-page document on teaching the professional catering how to manage hospital meals. No one has the time or inclination to read on what is in my view another report ineffectual in supporting the obvious.
The future focus must be on improving the actual food which can only be done through a collective collaboration with the professional caterer, the consultant chef and the food manufacturer as a working party to really discuss and debate the future.
The food must be prepared using local fresh healthy ingredients as near the patient as possible. This will not be heralded by everyone, but I believe it will be difficult but the only answer.
Mike
Mike Duckett MBE FIH
Ambassador for good hospital food
27 November 2017