Prue: Let patients eat when they want
HOSPITAL bosses have been urged by Bake Off judge Prue Leith to abandon set meal times in an effort to encourage patients to eat.
A team of experts headed by the celebrity chef was asked to undertake a root-and-branch review into hospital food by Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
It follows mounting complaints and NHS figures showing three patients die every day as a result of malnutrition.
The team’s 93-page report seen by The Mail on Sunday, also calls for ‘dinnertime companions’, communal dining areas and ‘cutting sandwiches into quarters and adding a garnish’. It says patients should be given iPads to order meals online.
But last night, health professionals poured scorn on the idea.
Dr Jim Stewart, a consultant gastroenterologist, said the report was ‘ missing t he fundamental complexity involved with feeding sick people’. And Wendy-Ling Relph, matron for nutrition at East Kent University Hospital Trust, said that many of the recommendations were unrealistic.
She said: ‘Wards are busier than ever, with patients sicker than they have ever been.
‘ Most patients don’t want to move far from their bed – and are too sick to do so.’