NHS to enforce sugary drinks ban after its trusts fail to act

SUGARY drinks will be banned from hospital cafés, the NHS has warned as it revealed a third of trusts have failed to voluntarily remove them.

NHS England said that hospitals and suppliers would face an outright ban if they failed to follow the current scheme to reduce sales of sugary drinks to 10 per cent or less of total sales.

The ban will be introduced at the start of July if more trusts do not sign up by the end of March. There would be no financial penalty, but when the ban is enforced trusts would have to renegotiate their contracts with suppliers to exclude sugary drinks.

Fourteen suppliers are signed up to the current scheme, including W H Smith, Marks & Spencer, Greggs and the Royal Voluntary Service.

Some trusts have already implemented a full ban, such as Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust and Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust, but 91 trusts, more than a third of the total, have failed to sign up.

Simon Stevens, the chief executive of NHS England, said: “It’s important the NHS practises what it preaches on healthy food and drink. We want 2018 to be the year when the tasty, affordable and easy option for patients, staff and visitors is the healthy option.”

The Government’s sugar tax to come in next year will increase the price of the most sugary drinks by 24p per litre.