I am at the point of actually losing the plot We have been having a massive standoff with the rehabilitation centre about food for my husband. Battles on takeaways, food being brought in and the like. Bearing in mind that the food in hospital is absolutely awful. Because of stupid COVID (the thing hospitals like hiding behind, they should be ashamed of themselves) we can't take any home cooked meals into my husband. I was at one point allowed to bring in some prepacked sandwiches or wraps in a sort of packed lunch a couple of times per week.
We were then made aware of some or other disgraceful hospital food policy which meant that they did not want anything brough in aside from sugar, salt and fat. This is their list:
Pre-wrapped biscuits
Washed fresh fruit and vegetables/dried fruit
Bottled or canned drinks (non-alcoholic)
Individual/re-sealable cartons of fresh fruit juice
Sweets and chocolates
Crisps and crackers
Cereal bars
Individual pre-packed cakes, for example muffins (no fresh/synthetic cream)
This ridiculous list blows my mind. I would rather take in healier options but they say they are a RISK. surely all this sugar and s... Is worse for the brain. So since Thursday instead of things like chicken, vegetable sushi, prawns and falafels with humous (spelling) for snacks he has eaten: 3 bags of crisps, a packet of sweets, a cinnamon roll, large bag of twiglets, some bottles of juice, possibly 2 muffins and yet more crisps.
I need a bit of a steer here from anyone please.
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ored13
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Hi, regardless of covid, hospitals do have policies regarding food being brought into hospital.
This is because the hospital has a duty of care. I know hospital food doesn't always look great, especially when slopped up from the heated trolley.
But the food served has been agreed with dieticians, and strick food hygiene procedures are observed.
Food brought in by relatives may well be cooked correctly, but between cooking and delivery, the hospital doesn't know if it prepared properly, and heated to the correct temperature. If food has been cooked and then cooled, under food hygiene, this has to be done within specific times. If food arrives hot, has that heat been kept above a safe level. This might seem silly, and offensive, how dare they question any of this?
It comes down to duty of care. If someone was to contract food poisoning, the hospital would be held responsible, and some bugs are easily transferred, and if someone is unwell, the last thing they need is dicky stomach bug. It might even cause the closure of a ward for deep cleaning.
I know that the list seems to contain mainly unhealthy foods, but because they are commercially made, they have been made to food hygiene standards.
If your husband has a dietary need, either because of religious, or cultural needs, then talk to the staff and they will provide a more appropriate diet.
I hope this makes sense, before brain hiccup, I had to follow similar policies within wards I worked on.
Oh absolutely. I don't want us to he allowed to bring in home cooked food because of all the bits and pieces. However they don't seem to be very constant in their policies. Where one week we were allowed to bring in one food (always prepacked etc) the following week we were not. I'm finding it frustrating and draining to deal with them on this. Not to mention how confusing it is for my husband who was allowed certain things but every few days is told he can't have something.
Contact the PALs (Patient Liaison) in the hospital, they will help you get a (hopefully) definitive answer. I know that it can be annoying, it is often confusing for the ward staff to to know exactly what is or isn't allowed, even if they have the policy in front of them.
Oh that's a good option. They are actually starting a family contact nurse for him I hear which will hopefully be the same thing or similar. It's been a very frustrating couple of months.
The last ward meal I was offered was just over a year ago. Sausage, mash, swede, cabbage and gravy. The sausage had clearly been steamed or cooked in water as they had the same colour as when raw. The rest I could easily have slurped up with a straw!
Whilst I couldn't eat mine the old boy, next to me wolfed down his and then when I offered mine, polished that off as well. When I asked him how he could eat that food, he said three things; he lives on his own and rarely has a dinner, he was in the army and this is on par with that food and when they brought him, they forgot to bring in his false teeth so this meal was fantastic as most of the other food he struggled with. He even hid the sausages as a snack for later!
😆😆😆 Thanks for this, it's taken some of the edge off the knife of annoyance and mild to middling fury which I carry around with me daily. This is a metaphorical knife....just in case you were worried.
Call that a Knife! - as Crocodile Dundee once said !
I know what you mean though. I am quite a big bloke but don't eat large meals, I prefer many smaller things to eat and drink throughout the day. The notion of the last food at 6:30 is something I couldn't cope with even if it was edible!
When my wife has been in hospital, I have always managed to take her in food both hot and cold without any problem. The only time, I got a complaint was when I brought in a take away kebab - and that was because the smell made everyone else hungry and jealous.
My worst experience was when I severed my fingers and required "plastic surgery". To increase the chances of the skin healing they raised the temperature in my room to very high. This meant, I had to consume over 8 pints of fluid a day to keep hydrated and mainly water. However, through my hospital window I could see the pub beer garden. Strangely difficult to consume 8 pints of water when you can see people consuming something more palatable.
Heh... The Beer thing is a bone of contention which we will get to when he gets out (I have consumed his xmas stash over the past couple off months to find out what all the fuss is about... Quite tasty the old pumpkin spice latte beer.. that has to be my favourite😆😈). But he's not a 3 square meals kind of guy either and is BEGGING for prawns and sushi on a regular basis. According to the hospital, this is the devil's food!!! He does at least get one takeaway per week. I make sure it's a smelly one as pay back.
Raiding some ones beer stash brings back some funny memories. In the year before my wife and I were to get married, I moved away for work.
My soon to be in-laws used to visit my parents. Unknown to me, my mother used to give my prospective father in-law beer from my travels. The double and triple strength beer from Holland and worst of all a special centenary ale from our local brewery which was 6 times as strong. 1 bottle of that and the father in law used to fall asleep within 10 minutes! He never worked it out and thought that my parents just had comfortable furniture
🤣🤣🤣. Has he been told this yet? I know there is some sort of beer that's unmarked from Belgium in the stash...a few bottles which he was keeping for him and his cronies for Xmas. I'm a little scared of this particular beer, so it's safe😆. Has your BI meant that beer is a fond memory?
Yep, I since 2012 I have not touched a drop. When I am really thirsty or on hot days I really miss it. In my previous life talking was a major part of the job and on the weekends used to do lots of physical work - so a few cold ones used to be ideal
I lost three stone whilst in hospital. The food was so dreadful and as I recovered I made a point of how unhealthy their stuff was.
I refused to eat anything that wasnt brought in by my wife or in sealed packaging (I had watched in horror how the hospital food trolley person that came round, had one day dropped an open sandwich on the floor. She thought no one was watching so picked it up and put it back on the platter.
Duty of carelessness!
(My wife is very exacting about healthy food anyway). Even the neuro agreed with me that hospital food was dreadful and as such I couldnt wait to escape.
The dietician was very concerned and said that against her normal advice that once out I needed to urgently build back up.
Jokingly she said, “visit McDs three times a day for a Big Mac meal, you need to put weight on”.
Yuk! No I didnt but could see her point.
Anyway once back home I not only had healthy food, but plenty of it and steadily regained my normal weight. (I have never been overweight, but it certainly worried numerous people how I had gone downhill in that department).
Four and a half years on, my weight hardly ever varies, just as it always was, so that’s a big tick in the box!😃
He's lost 4st. He was a bit on the heavy side when he went in but they have put him on a high protein diet. I'm absolutely raging at the fact that they would prefer the sugar and sh#t diet as apposed to prepacked good food. Horrifying. I need to speak to the dietician. I took in a bag of snacks today and I actually felt sick that I was delivering it. If he doesn't want to eat what's on offer or only eats some of it that's what he has to put in his body😞
And also I'm not at all surprised at the sandwich dropping. It turns my stomach to think what the inside of the ward looks like now that they've not got family in there tidying and giving things the odd wipe.
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