Hospital food
Last week I was an inpatient in a public hospital. The food was very poor. One of the doctors looking after me, told me that the local health service attempts to feed patients for $2 per day. I wa...
Forum Discussion
I used to work in the Dietary Dept of a major Sydney Hospital, overseeing serving of meals, menus & updating patient's requirements as they would move from clear fluids to full fluids, to light diet to full diet - and on the whole, the food was pretty good! I always made sure I had some spare Roast Lamb & CHicken meals (often given to partners of extremely ill patients who were at the ward from morning to night.) Tho the 'light diets' were pretty ordinary - and I was instrumental in getting the Creamed Tripe removed from the menu & replaced with chicken & asparagus in a cream sauce! Using 'economy' as the excuse - a false economy to continue plating up & serving Creamed Tripe, only for it to be put in the bin - vs Chicken & Asparagus that was actually eaten .... not thrown out.
As the Dietary Aide for the Gynae/Plastic surgery ward and a general surgery ward - I was able to do specific meals for the more needy patients too, including making things like Roast Dinners & Casseroles into a 'thick liquid' by using a blender & lots of gravy etc to make it fit thru a 'big straw' so they could suck it in & get the actual flavours instead of just having stuff like Ensure etc. I would do that with tinned fruit & custard/ice cream etc as well, to give them some variety in flavours as well. I always had some fresh sandwiches on hand for those that couldn't cope with a hot meal.
They had their own kitchen back then & all cooking & serving was done from there. These days, it is all brought in from outside, pre packed.
When my husband had his stomach cancer surgery at North Shore Private in Sydney - the meals were excellent, altho he couldn't eat any until his last few days there as he was on Nil By Mouth & fluids for so long.
It is totally false economy to serve up crap meals that only get thrown out.
As the Dietary Aide for the Gynae/Plastic surgery ward and a general surgery ward - I was able to do specific meals for the more needy patients too, including making things like Roast Dinners & Casseroles into a 'thick liquid' by using a blender & lots of gravy etc to make it fit thru a 'big straw' so they could suck it in & get the actual flavours instead of just having stuff like Ensure etc. I would do that with tinned fruit & custard/ice cream etc as well, to give them some variety in flavours as well. I always had some fresh sandwiches on hand for those that couldn't cope with a hot meal.
They had their own kitchen back then & all cooking & serving was done from there. These days, it is all brought in from outside, pre packed.
When my husband had his stomach cancer surgery at North Shore Private in Sydney - the meals were excellent, altho he couldn't eat any until his last few days there as he was on Nil By Mouth & fluids for so long.
It is totally false economy to serve up crap meals that only get thrown out.