-Cases of malnourished patients have doubled
-Patient Concern warns over health budget cuts
Patients in NHS hospitals are being fed cheaper food than prison inmates, it was revealed yesterday.Spending on hospital food has been slashed by up to two-thirds over the last five years, according to official figures.
In some hospitals in England budgets have fallen by 62 per cent – with meals costing little more than £1. That's just half the £2.10 spent on the average meal in jail.
The NHS spends £500million on catering every year, but there has been a wave of complaints about poor quality and malnutrition, especially from the elderly.
The numbers of hospital patients becoming malnourished have doubled in three years to a record 13,500.
Around one in five trusts has reduced spending on food since 2004-05 – 36 out of 191 – according to figures analysed from NHS Information Centre data.
At least 20 trusts spend less than £5 a day feeding each patient.
The figures show St George’s Hospital, South London, spent least – just £1.04 on each meal or £3.11 a day – when it used to spend £6.67 a day.
But a spokesman disputed the 53 per cent drop, saying the figure covered only the costs to the catering department. When snacks, drinks, dietary supplements and late meal requests are included the figure is £6.80 a day, he said.
The biggest percentage drop in spending was 62 per cent over five years at the Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in West Sussex. The amount spent per day went down from £10.97 in 2004-05 to £4.11 last year. A spokesman said the cash only covered the cost of three main meals and a drink.
There was a 61 per cent cut at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospital, down from £23.67 to £9.06 per patient per day and at Ealing Hospital, London, down from £10.37 to £4.
At the Royal Brompton and Harefield Trust, covering hospitals in London and Hertfordshire, there was a 58 per cent cut in spending, from £16.56 a day to £6.89.
Even less is spent at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals, down from £13.85 in 2004-05 to £6.
Roger Goss, co-director of Patient Concern, said the problem would only get worse as hospitals struggle to make efficiency savings. He said ‘Hospital food is a disaster. Each hospital is allowed to decide how much it spends but the Department of Health should set a minimum amount.’
A spokesman for the hospital nutrition charity, the British Association of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, said it was outrageous that food was not a major priority.
‘Nutrition care in hospitals is about more than just the food quality, and not enough is being spent on it,’ she said.
‘Patients need to be treated as individuals and given help to eat the food put in front of them. We’re wasting money because of a failure to get these policies right.’
Food specialist Loyd Grossman, who led a £40million revamp of NHS menus in 2000 that was shelved after he quit five years later, revealed last month that he was blocked by a ‘chronic lack of common sense’.
The former presenter of BBC’s Masterchef, who was not paid for his involvement, said he was frustrated in his efforts to introduce healthy and tasty recipes.
The Daily Mail’s Dignity for the Elderly campaign has repeatedly highlighted abuses caused by underfeeding and poor nursing practice in hospitals and homes.
A Department of Health spokesman said: ‘Hospitals make their own decisions about their food and, over time, the amount spent will differ between hospitals.’
A 2007 report from consumer organisation Which? found hospital food was so bad that one in four patients had to buy their own or get relatives to bring in meals.
Two out of three Britons are satisfied with the NHS — a record figure, says a survey.
The British Social Attitudes survey found 64 per cent are either very or quite satisfied with the NHS. Satisfaction with GPs is now 80 per cent — three per cent lower than in the early 1990s.
Satisfaction with hospital inpatient services fell by one percentage point but outpatient and A&E services rated highly.
Source:dailymail
