Prison food better than hospital

A study has revealed that food provided in UK hospitals is worse than that served in prison, despite years of government promises to tackle poor hospital nutrition.

The study conducted by Bournemouth University, found food in prison to be far “better than most civilians have”.

John Pollitt, Medical Negligence Partner at Pearson Hinchliffe Solicitors commented: “This report is worrying. It is well established that providing adequate nutrition is important to aid a speedy recovery and to safeguard against risks including: safeguarding against bedsores in the elderly and long term patients.”

The Daily Mail has been highlighting the scandal of old people not being fed properly in hospital as part of its Dignity for the Elderly campaign. Around 40 percent of patients are already malnourished when they arrive at a hospital but the researchers found the situation does not tend to improve during their stay in hospital.

Various procedural problems were identified. Researchers found people on NHS staff do not check if the food is eaten, food still arrives cold, and patients often miss out because meal times clash with tests and operations The frail and elderly do not get the help they need with meals, and nobody checks whether they get enough to eat, trays are removed by cleaning staff so that doctors do not know how much was eaten.

The Mail also revealed that some hospitals spend less on meals than the average prison. Ten hospitals spent less on breakfast, lunch and an evening meal than the £2.12 (Dh12.6) a day allocated for food by the prison service. One spent just £1.

Professor John Edwards said: “Hospital patients don’t consume enough. If you are using food as a means of treatment then it’s not working”.

“And from the work we’ve done we know that people who sit round a table eat a lot more, but this doesn’t happen in hospitals,” he said.

In contrast, prison food was found to be cheaper and healthier.

“If you are in prison then the diet you get is extremely good in terms of nutritional content,” Edwards explained.

“The food that is provided is actually better than most civilians have. There’s a focus on carbohydrates, then there’s the way they prepare the food, it’s very healthy.

“They don’t add salt and there’s relatively little frying of food - if you have a burger then it goes in the oven,” he added.

A spokesman for the Department of Health said that good food was important for a patient’s treatment and experience of NHS services.

“The majority of patients are satisfied with the food they receive in hospitals, and we are working to improve services further,” he stated.

The latest figures show 242 patients died of malnutrition in NHS hospitals in 2007 the highest toll in a decade. More than 8,000 left hospital under-nourished - double the figure when Labour came to power.

John Pollitt, Medical Negligence Partner at Pearson Hinchliffe Solicitors added: “Clinicians have a duty to ensure patients get satisfactory treatment for any condition including malnutrition. However, despite the problem of unsatisfactory food in hospitals being around for many years, the report appears to point to a structural problem that still exists to this day within some NHS Trusts”.

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