Patient’s plate full after plea for tasty food
APATIENT who complained of “flavourless” hospital food put an appeal out on Twitter for external caterers to provide her ward with decent food.
Kimberly Chard, 36, posted a tweet on Sunday morning calling on restaurants and cafés to cook supper for the five patients on the adult cystic fibrosis ward at University Hospital Llandough, along with the four members of staff on duty.
Her request ended up receiving more than 100 retweets and 90 likes, and by 5pm, the patients, doctors and nurses were tucking into a tasty meal from The Pot Bistro, Whitchurch Road, Cardiff, free of charge.
Kimberly, 36, who has spent her entire life in and out of hospital with the chronic lung condition, said it was the “first time she’d tasted flavours in weeks”.
“When you are in hospital for weeks on end it can be quite disheartening to eat the same food constantly,” she said.
“Cystic fibrosis patients need more calories than most other patients, so it’s vital that we are given food we enjoy eating. So I decided to put a call out on social media for some nicer food than we would normally eat. That included the staff too as they work so hard. We are part of one big family here.”
Kimberly, who described the macaroni cheese at the hospital as “disgusting”, said she was delighted with the response to her post.
“We just needed something that would ignite our appetites,” she said.
“I had a really nice dish with veggie sausages and lots of protein [from The Pot Bistro]. I’m told the beef bourguignon was wonderful too. The Pot Bistro showed their support for us and it helped raise awareness for our ward. A few other individuals also offered to pay for pizza, or another takeaway, for the entire ward. The power of Twitter kindness astounds me at times.”
A spokeswoman said: “Our menus are designed to be as appetising, healthy and tasty as possible to meet the nutritional needs of our patients.
“Patients on the cystic fibrosis unit at University Hospital Llandough are offered three meals a day from the main patient menu.
“We offer a wide variety of cooked foods, as well as sandwiches and salads. Patients can choose as much as they like.
“The cystic fibrosis unit also has a bespoke a la carte menu that offers a range of age-appropriate higher-calorie meals, desserts and milkshakes that are available to support the main menu. Any additional requests from patients are met by our catering team.”
The spokeswoman added that patients also have access to a tuck shop on the unit which has high-calorie snacks and drinks and is available 24-7.