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A NATIONWIDE SURVEY about hospital food and patient nutrition has found that some patients were forced to ask their families to bring in food for the them.
The study by the Health Information and Quality Authority (HIQA) found that 86% of the patients they spoke to were happy with how they were fed while in hospital but identified a number of areas for improvement.
Hiqa carried out unannounced inspections in 13 hospitals, looked at information from a total of 42 facilities and also spoke to 579 patients.
The study found that patients were often given very little detail about their food choices.
“In many cases, meals were described as ‘chicken’ or ‘fish’ with no further detail about how the meat was cooked (fried, baked or stewed) or about side dishes such as vegetables or sauces,” the report states.
The report also points to the fact that, in general, patients order their meals a day in advance but that some hospitals are starting to allow patients choose their meal on the day they eat it.
Another problem the report pointed to is a lack of choice for patients of varying ethnic, religious and cultural backgrounds.
About a third of the 42 hospitals surveyed said that their menus did not provide options for patients who may have different dietary requirements for religious reasons. This was most pronounced in smaller regional hospitals according to the survey but Hiqa says it is an area that requires “significant improvement”.
In general, most reported that they were satisfied with how the food was presented and Hiqa’s inspections also observed a number of examples of hospital staff accommodating patients when they had requested food that was not on the menu.
In 15 cases, however, patients had asked family to bring them food from home, either because they didn’t feel they were getting enough to eat or they didn’t like the food.
“Negative comments about the food focused mainly on its temperature, primarily that hot food was not hot enough,” the Hiqa report states.
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I was visiting a friend in the hospital last week he had a heart attack and was in the CC unit. Tea time came and was shocked to see that a heart attack patient was given wedges and fried chicken and half a tomato on the side. Public hospitals don’t have a good healthy meal option (mostly tea time, dinners are ok). More should be done to have healthy food options.
They do have healthy options on their menus but the patient has the autonomy to choose what they eat.
It boggles the mind the kind of processed, worthless rubbish that’s served in hospitals. Is serving oven chips in a hospital any different to smoking?
I attend St Christopher Ward in Vincent’s for CF patients and in fairness to them they offer a huge range of choices and you could order almost any combination of food. The problem is most of the food is terrible quality!! I am regularly in for a 2 week stint and live off plain salmon and mashed potatoes or chicken goujons and mashed potatoes because the standard of food is horrific. I regularly have to get friends and family to bring me in food because the dinner (which is served at 4pm..) is completely unpalatable!
I know that we are given far more choice and options on the CF Ward that most in the hospital, but choice and information isn’t the problem with hospital food. The quality of hospital food is the problem!
@Bronagh try the staff canteen, half the time they can’t tell you if 8 chicken or fish either way it comes with bistro gravy. Or a personal favourite is the gray potatoes and brown cabage. Well I think it was cabage it could have been sprouts.
And its a no brainer that a stress free ward and meals suitable for the patients condition can be a powerful aid to recovery…
…. I Was In Eye & Ear Hospital
For 2 Week’s This Year & For 2 Week’s October 15
The Food Was Excellent, Very Good Selection.
The Dinner Staff Were Excellent & Caring.
I Was In A Lot Of Pain, From Door Staff, Porter’s
Nurse’s , Each & Every One Were Out Of This World …. Thank You …. Thank You For Caring
If ever I had to have a stay in hospital I would refuse the food. It’s terrible. Absolutely zero nutritional value! How is someone expected to recover from illness with such poor food. It’s completely unacceptable considering how much a stay in hospital costs. A few extra euro paid for better nutrition should be a legal requirement.
The soup is the worst, dribbling down the side of a stainless steel bowl. It would give anyone the gawks.
My dad has heart failure and had to go into hospital for few days to have fluid taken off his lungs…..his lunch on the first day was sausage and chips!!! Needless to say I wouldn’t let him eat it and went to restaurant down the road and got him a right lunch.
I remember a Dublin Michelin chef offered to go into the hospitals for free and bring their offerings and method up to speed and design menus that the staff would be capable of delivering etc
He met with Leo varadkar but the unions etc refused to allow him into their kitchens to assist them
It’s disgraceful that at your lowest physical point you are being served patently unhealthy food with toast and wedges that have no nutritional value
That’s Oliver Dunne Apu! I never knew that’s what happened as when I heard himself and Leo Varadkar were meeting I thought it was a fantastic idea. That’s disgraceful, so disappointed to hear that Apu.
Yes, the orange one is the broccoli and the green one is the meat.
I stayed in Naas hospital a few times. The toast at breakfast is always soggy processed white pan. Pure muck. Soup and lunch very good but the evening meal is usually high salt overcooked fatty gunge, although the salad is good. You also get nothing from 4.30pm until 8 the next morning. Long time to fast.
Chicken or fish? You’ll probably end up with horse anyways
Its a mystery how public hospitals manage to convert wholesome ingredients into inedible muck. It’s probably down to centralised kitchens whereby the cooked food is transported to the individual hospitals and reheated at high temperatures to kill bacteria. I think food should be cooked from fresh in the hospital kitchen and the total daily patient food budget increased up to €5 from the current €3.50
My Mother In Law who’s in her 90′s was in Marymount Hospice for respite last year and despite her son telling them she could only eat soft foods (which would be common for a lot of older people to be fair), a mere half hour later, she was served……chicken nuggets and chips.
I find that very surprising Fonril, Marymount hospice has an award winning kitchen and is of exceptional quality. My mother was there for a month a year and a half ago for her end of days care, the selection and quality was excellent, they also give the option of soft or pureed depending on the patients needs. I ate my dinner in the restaurant there every day for that month and the food is exactly the same as what the patients have, not once did I see chicken nuggets on the menu.
I know the reputation Marymount has so was shocked myself but I think possibly there’s a huge difference in the actual hospice care and the care for elderly patients in respite. Aside from the food issue, my mother in law also didn’t get her medication while in there. You have to get a prescription for the exact medication they will need for whatever time they’re in there for so in theory at the end of the week or two weeks, it should all be used up but every time she’s been sent home with at least half if not more of the medication unused. Her son (my other half) is afraid of speaking up in case he would be refused any kind of respite if he complained. It’s not the mecca of good care that it’s cracked up to be. Even HIQA have been critical of them and a social worker even reported them of neglect.
http://www.rte.ie/news/2016/0109/758836-hiqa-inspection-belmullet-home/
Not being from Cork I had no idea what Marymount’s reputation was, but with regards to their hospice care I did find it exceptional not just the facility, care and food, but also all the people there. I spent on average 12 hours a day there for that month and never encountered anyone who had anything negative to say, and I did not confine myself to the hospice wards. If your husband is not satisfied or has concerns with the level of care or fears medication is not being administered correctly he should absolutely 100% complain, I most certainly would as I would not want any elderly relative of mine to be in respite in a place with substandard care. In fact I would not bring them back there.
We have had a similar problem with respite in st Colmans in Rathdrum. My great aunt has dementia and she came out after 2 weeks respite with numerous problems. She lost 4 kg while in their care. Her catheter was blocked and she had a UTI. She was so dehydrated she had a seizure the day after coming home. They nearly killed her.
Having worked in hospitals serving food to patients myself (not cooking it) I have seen the terrible quality of food on offer. Wouldn’t serve it to a dog. It’s disgraceful
Is that broccoli purée in the top picture?
Never had any problems with hospital food. Good selection, range and if you don’t like it you don’t have to eat it. Easy to switch if needed, and if you just want a sambo you just have to ask.
I often wonder how hard can it be to make simple, nutritious food. Homemade soup for instance, made fresh every day would be ideal for most patients recovering and full of healthy vegetables. Basic staples like stews and casseroles the same. Easy to make and keep hot. It cannot be that hard.
Chicken or fish is not a bad option- it’s mince meat for patients on a soft diet. They get it for all meals
Usual lack of understanding that people recovering from serious surgery have completely different dietary requirements compared to what would normally be considered healthy or nutritional
I think there’s more pressing issues in the hospital service than the options of food which should be made available to patients.
Some of the private hospitals are very good. Galway clinic and mater private are both pretty acceptable, good choices etc.
All of the private hospitals should be excellent considering what the bills are like from there! 90 k for a 7 week stay in Galway clinic. 16 k up front for 30 days in John of God’s without any form of surgery, only psychiatric evaluation and intervention if you don’t have health insurance, wouldnt you expect excellent food? The problem is in public hospitals.
Should read 16 k up front if you don’t have health insurance for 30 days in John of God’s…
Vincent’s private has great food! Good variety, plenty of choices, staff were always very helpful and accommodating if you had any requests or dietary restrictions. I mean the bills are astronomical, but at least you’re getting properly fed for the price!
I had to be admitted to James Connelly memorial as an emergency a few years ago and although the care was good the food was pure muck. I wouldn’t give it to a dog, my son brought me in a breakfast and dinner every day. It didn’t stop them charging my health insurance €3,000 a day.
Food in the Eye and Ear is lovely- even got a little bit of chocolate on my strawberry – cute!
Ha maybe!
I spent 8 days in the hospital with my son, the paediatric units food was dreadful in no way is the food served had any diet expert or chef involved in the nutrition of the menu designed for children recovering for illnesses. Everyday it was the same bland chicken or bacon some kind of veg and a starch (potatoes) this was for the lunch served at 11:30 am who each lunch at that time? For supper or tea a serving of dreadful cheap sausages frozen chicken strips and frozen nasty oven chips were served to the children some nutrition, I wouldn’t allow my child eat food like this and the government has us hounded about the wrong foods. Everyday I would see family members of staff and others hanging around the kitchen for the food sent back to the kitchen.
I feel nauseous even reading about hospital food. I was in hospital last summer and the smell alone was vile. I ended up ordering a supermacs and having it delivered to the hospital. During my transplant I was exceptionally sick, I was vomiting every hour, which wasn’t aided by the fact the smell of the food cooking travelled through the air vents. The food definitely shouldn’t be served to people trying to recover
Any experience I have had in public hospitals the food was vile,and gluten free options for coeliacs either non-existent or inedible. I was in the Coombe over a bank holiday weekend and their “dinner” was a plate of lettuce and not much more, apparently you didn’t need to eat on bank holidays because the staff were off so there was nobody to cook a dinner.
2 of everything, please.
The food in the picture is a texture A diet form the look of it and it that way to help with chewing and swallowing for patients recovering from stroke and elder care patients. This is overseen by speech and language therapist and dietician. Not all meals are served this way and there are various diets and textures for different reasons. Not a lot of people know or understand this even family members of patients find it hard when they see these textured meals but there are reasons behind it
The problem is the theft of food from the kitchens. Where do you think that the cheap high quality beef sold by hospital catering managers comes from?
When I was in the Rotunda the food was restaurant qualify. Everything was so fresh and tasty. They also fed us about five times a day (two of those meals being crackers or sandwiches) I really didn’t want to go home and have to cook!
A few times I was in drogheda hospital for minor surgery and i lived off biscuits and water because once or twice I found it hard to identify the food. I’d lift the lid, smell what it was and my stomach would turn. Breakfast was all I could eat because it was a small box of cornflakes. I feel so sorry for anyone that has to stay in hospital long term. It’s not conducive to any sort of recovery
Most hospitals use the cook, flash freeze, reheat method whereby food is cooked in batches sometimes weeks or months in advance and then reheated and rehydrated on the day. All cook in central kitchens and food is then transported in hot holding trolleys, food often leaves the kitchen an hour before it arrives on the ward. To save money, meals at evenings, weekends and bank holidays are often quick or easy junk food items that can be cooked by cheaper staff.
Meals are often sent individually played to wards to avoid wastage, covered in cling film, which results in everything getting soggy and wet.
It truly is horrible muck. Go to the staff canteens in these hospitals, you won’t see staff eating the same stuff.
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