Request

[Guest guest]

Respectfully:

 

I wonder if writers could double space or enlarge the font of an entry like the

one below? My 53 year old eyes struggle with an entry like this, and because of

the wisdom in this group, I do not want to miss anything. Just wondering.

 

Cynthia

 

 

>>Hopefully they will include vegan meals, which Lloyd Grossman didn't, although

he did introduce vegetarian meals. Catherine - are you still here - what were

your meals like? Jo NHS food 'needs Oliver treatment' Around �500m is spent on

hospital food in England annually Hospital food, like school dinners, needs the

" Jamie Oliver treatment " , say junior doctors. The issue is to be debated at the

British Medical Association's Junior Doctors Conference in London. Junior

Doctors Committee chairman Dr Simon Eccles warned poor hospital food was slowing

patients' recoveries. A spokesman for the Department of Health acknowledged the

need for improvement but said progress on increasing standards was being made.

No difference The call to bring in the celebrity chef comes five years after

former Masterchef host Loyd Grossman led an initiative to improve hospital

menus. But Dr Eccles told the BBC News website an anecdotal survey of 100 junior

doctors showed none reported seeing any changes in the food served in their

hospital. He said: " That hasn't seemed to make any difference to the food. " What

doctors are served in the evenings is pretty awful - and the food the patients

get served is substantially worse. Better food would enable patients to get

better more quickly Dr Simon Eccles " We often see relatives bringing in food for

patients. " The Department of Health says �500m is spent on hospital food in

England each year, with the NHS providing 300m meals - working out at 60p per

meal. Dr Eccles added: " In one hospital I worked in, the evening meal would be a

sandwich, an apple and orange juice. " If it was a beef sandwich, there would be

two slices of beef and nothing else; no butter and no salad. " 'Speedier

recoveries' He said patients recovering from illness or surgery needed more than

the normal daily intake of 2,000 calories. But patients get an average of 1,000

calories a day, he said. " Better food would enable patients to get better more

quickly. " He said he hoped the fact the issue was being raised at the junior

doctors' conference would mean public pressure would be brought to bear on

trusts who would then act to improve the food they provided. The government

promised extra funding for school meals after a high profile campaign led by

Oliver. A spokesman for the chef said: " We hope that when the School Dinners

Campaign establishes itself in the rest of the country, the government will then

take a look at how the initiative has had a major impact, as this could easily

be duplicated for hospitals. We now know that good food is important for kids'

general well-being, nutrition is also crucial to the healing process Spokesman

for Jamie Oliver " Just as we now know that good food is important for kids'

general well-being, nutrition is also crucial to the healing process. " A

Department of Health spokeswoman said: " We provide around 300 million meals each

year which makes it one of the largest catering operations in the world. " Having

seen improvements in the quality and availability of food, there is a need to

really tackle the issue of under-nourishment and its impact on clinical status. "

Another department spokesman said: " Work needs to be done but progress is being

made to improve standards. " But he said it was " wrong " to say the Grossman

initiative had " failed " to improve standards. He said in 2002, just after

Grossman's programme started, a report by independent inspectors showed that

just 17% of hospitals offered good food. But their last set of figures showed

that now 44% of hospitals offered " good food " . A spokesperson for South Downs

Health NHS Trust, said patients at Brighton General Hospital were satisfied with

the quality of their food. She said: " The food is handled by NHS catering, and

certainly a recent survey has shown our patients are satisfied with the state of

food. " We would cater for a specific diet. " 'Differences'