TV Prue: Inedible NHS sludge stops patient recovery
TELLY cook Prue Leith has claimed “inedible” NHS food is harming patients’ recovery from illnesses.
The 77-year-old, who will replace Mary Berry on The Great British Bake Off, slammed the “foul-smelling sludge” served in hospitals.
She said: “I once watched my mother lift a cloche from her plate.
“A grey lake slowly flowed to the edge. Next to this foul-smelling sludge was a pool of watery mash and some khaki peas.
“All the staff do is reheat frozen meals and lay trays with difficult-toundo packs of cutlery, sweaty squares of cheese, cheap biscuits and dabs of marge.”
Prue, who will join Bake Off when it moves to Channel 4 later this year, said a budget of £1.49 per meal was “ludicrous”. Writing in The Oldie magazine, the MasterChef Australia judge added: “But that’s not an excuse for inedible meals.”
She also quoted a report from The Patients Association which found patients complained about “not being offered anything to eat if they have to miss meals”.
Prue added: “Health ministers, doctors and administrators need to be convinced that good food is medicine. If they believed that healthy food would lead to faster healing... I bet they’d find the money for better quality ingredients, better training, closer kitchens.”
All the staff do is reheat frozen meals & lay trays of sweaty cheese PRUE LEITH HITS OUT AT HOSPITAL FOOD
WE are what we eat, and telly cook Prue Leith is surely right that inedible hospital food slows the recovery of patients.
The health system is surviving on iron rations, so it is tempting for bosses to cut the cost of meals, but it is a false economy if unappetising food is left unfinished or untouched.
Nobody expects a gourmet menu, but it’s important the patients’ wellbeing is sustained.
So let’s improve hospital food to ensure we eat our way to better health.