I was in the unfortunate position to have to spend four days in hospital recently and as I had never been on that side of the bed, having only ever visited sick relatives and friends, I was surprised when a nurse cam e round to ‘take my order for lunch’.
The menu was relatively diverse with around four or five options, including a starter, main and desert. I wasn’t expecting this having heard all the horror stories about food in hospitals and was a little apprehensive when my meal did arrive.
It wasn’t restaurant quality but then I didn’t expect it to be with hundreds of hungry mouths to feed. During my time in St James’ and then Leeds General Infirmary I couldn’t fault the food at all. Some days were better than others but that was down to my personal taste. The tea and biscuits at regular intervals during the day, which were brought round to my bed, also helped.
I notice in the news today that Mark Sparrow, a gentleman who had to spend ten weeks in hospital, has written a blog about the food he was served. As a result, the blog has encouraged a documentary to be produced for Channel 4. I really do hope that this piece is subjective and balanced.
Personally I would much rather that my money was used to ensure that the specialist doctors, nurses and health care staff were available to make me better – not feed me Michelin starred food. Let’s be honest, no one enjoys going to hospital and the idea is to get in, fixed and out in as little time as possible, not to behave like a food critic.
I’m not sure how helpful it is that these reports focus entirely on the negative. The NHS isn’t perfect but then we do far better than a lot of others and after my stint on the inside I take my hat off to those who work so hard to try their best and as far as I’m concerned that’s all that anyone can ask for.