Hospitals deny fresh-cooked food to patients but offer it to doctors and nurses
HOSPITALS are denying fresh-cooked food to patients while serving it to doctors and nurses.
Two in three dishes given to sick people on wards were warmed-up chilled or frozen meals, a survey found.
Basic NHS food standards were also not being met by half of hospitals, it was claimed.
The findings come from the Campaign for Better Hospital Food charity, which wants tough new rules to drive up standards.
Last night new Bake Off judge Prue Leith, who is backing the fight, blasted the kind of “inedible, foul-smelling sludge” being served.
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She said her late mum had to eat it when she was ill and that even lags were guaranteed better meals.
The cookery expert, 77, added: “Hospital food has a deservedly poor reputation.
“We must have legal standards, like those already in place for school food and prison food.”
The pressure group looked at 30 hospitals in London and found staff were more than twice as likely as patients to get decent meals. Medics at 23 were able to eat fresh-cooked fare.
But just nine offered it to patients. One in six even served food on wards in airline-style packaging.
Pre-frozen or chilled meals were often bought in from big external contractors.
The average spent on a meal for a patient was £3.
The Health Department yesterday insisted it did have legally-binding food standards.
A spokesman claimed: “Food is rated good in nine out of ten hospitals.”