Hospital food

I have my Herceptin at Epworth. Their food is fantastic. I actually book in at lunchtime so I can eat there even though my procedure only takes an hour.

I think the move to import meals from a large scale commercial supplier is part of the problem.My mother's nursing home moved from its own kitchen (homely but fresh and tasty) to a commercial supplier and the overall quality went down markedly. Even 4/5 star hotels 'store' preprepared food for weeks - hard to see how that improves the quality. Happily I have not been in hospital for several years - last time, Epworth was surprisingly good, although dinner at 5pm took a bit of adjusting to.

I spent three nights in a private hospital in Sydney in March and the food was underwhelming to say the least. By day three I was making my own arrangements - I am not looking forward to my mastectomy stay! 

I was reliably informed that the public hospital I was in feeds patients for $2 per day. The meals arrive in shrink wrapped plastic. They are much worse than airline food.
Over the years, public hospital food in N.S.W. has deteriorated immensely.
Christmas dinners are not even good for a dog.

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.

Dad just spent 5 days in a public hospital in Hervey Bay but as a private patient. The meals were good and the couple of fillets of flat head fish were a real treat for dad. He gobbled one up despite how sick he was. Roast beef was a bit too much to try on his system so his carer scored that meal but dad loved the soups they made for him. To try and build him up a bit they also gave him Ensure drinks.

Kmakm
I'm with you hospital is not I think where anyone really wants to be , but you do have to find the silver linings.

I guess a fractured hip is more of an inconvenience than an illness but when getting out of bed to go to the loo is a challenge enough for now , getting meals delivered is more than I would be getting at home.,so definitely silver linings.

I agree @kmakm You never want to be there and if you're feeling really ill you couldn't care where you are but it does have a small positive side.

Hospitals aren't a holiday if you are really ill.
There is such a difference between food in the public system and private system.

@Silba Illness aside, hospitals always seem a little holiday-like for me. You get a menu, food is brought to you, and then removed, you don't have to do laundry, change sheets, clean anything... heck sometimes you don't have to even clean yourself! I'd never wish to be there, I'd be happy to never see the inside of one again, but if I do, silver linings! K xox