Patients in Health
Service hospitals are far more likely to go hungry than criminals in jail,
scientists warned yesterday.
They say frail and
elderly patients do not get the help they need with meals, and nobody checks
whether they get enough to eat.
Despite years of
Government promises to tackle poor hospital nutrition, food still arrives cold,
and patients often miss out because meal times clash with tests and operations.
Meanwhile, prisoners
are enjoying carbohydrate-rich, low-fat foods which in many cases are better
than they would have been eating on the outside.
The Daily Mail has
been highlighting the scandal of old people not being fed properly in hospital
as part of its Dignity for the Elderly campaign.
Hospital meals are
often taken away untouched, because they are either unappetising or are placed
out of patients' reach.
The latest figures
show 242 patients died of malnutrition in NHS hospitals in 2007 - the highest toll in a decade. More than 8,000
left hospital under-nourished - double the
figure when Labour came to power.
The NHS throws away
11million meals every year, and many nurses say they are too busy to help the
frail eat.
Earlier this year the
Mail revealed that some hospitals spend less on meals than the average prison.
Ten hospitals spent
less on breakfast, lunch and an evening meal than the £2.12 a day allocated for
food by the prison service. One spent just £1.
Although most
hospitals do spend more than £2.12, prisoners end up better nourished than
patients, say experts from
Professor John
Edwards said around 40 per cent of patients were already malnourished when they
were admitted to hospital, but their condition did not tend to improve while
they were there.
'If you are in prison
then the diet you get is extremely good in terms of nutritional content,' he
said.
'The food that is
provided is actually better than most civilians have.
'There's a focus on
carbohydrates, then there's the way they prepare the food, it's very healthy.
They don't add salt and there's relatively little frying of food - if you have a burger then it goes in the
oven. Hospital patients don't consume enough.
'And from the work
we've done we know that people who sit round a table eat a lot more, but this
doesn't happen in hospitals.'
His colleague, Dr
Heather Hartwell, said fruit and vegetables were given out in hospitals 'but
this doesn't mean it's eaten'.
While patients suffer
due to a loss of appetite as a result of their illness, they often go hungry
because there is no one to help them eat.
Dr Hartwell said once
food was prepared, it generally hangs around waiting for porters to transport
it to patients. Then it may be left on wards until it goes cold.
'Ward staff also don't actually know how much patients are eating
because it is domestics who clear the trays away,' she said. 'This is an
example of fragmentation in hospitals that does not necessarily happen in
prisons.'
The research found
temperature and texture are among the most important factors in patients'
satisfaction with food.
It concluded lack of
appetite due to a medical problem is probably the main reason for
under-nutrition, but said hospitals can make improvements.
Liberal Democrat
health spokesman Norman Lamb said: 'It's incredible that so many hospitals are
failing to serve healthy meals. If prisons can serve good food
then so can hospitals.'
The Department of
Health said: 'The majority of patients are satisfied with the food they receive
in hospitals, and we are working to improve services further.
'The Nutrition Action
Plan, Improving Nutritional Care, outlines how nutritional care and hydration
can be improved and highlights five key priority areas for NHS and social care
staff to work with.
'We have also
introduced the concept of "protected mealtimes" where all non-urgent
activity on the ward stops, so that patients can enjoy their meals.'