Herts patients are fed on less than
10th March 2009
Anne Main has expressed concern at government figures which show that Hospitals in Hertfordshire are spending significantly less on meals for patients than other areas of the country.
Anne Main, MP for St Albans, has expressed concern at government figures which show that Hospitals in Hertfordshire are spending significantly less on meals for patients than other areas of the country.
The figures from the NHS Information Centre show that St Albans City Hospital, Hemel Hempstead Hospital and Watford General Hospital are all spending amongst the lowest average daily spend on food for patients in the country, and even less than the Prison Service spends on prisoners. This follows reports in yesterdays press that 8,000 patients a year are malnourished after staying in NHS hospitals - an increase of 16.5% on the previous year and double the number in 1997.
Anne said:
"Frankly, I find this data extremely worrying. Patients need a good balanced diet to help them recover, so it is galling that even prisoners are fed better than Hertfordshire's sick patients. This news comes after the Government's 2006 decision to scrap their Better Hospital Food Programme, designed to improve the food available in our hospitals, in a cost cutting exercise.
It can be no coincidence that our patients are allocated amongst the lowest NHS funding per head in the country. I don't know how any politician can maintain that it is 'fair' to redistribute funds to the extent that there appears to be only a measly
