Spent 2 nights in St Vincents in November, if I was 4ft 2 inches and a woman the food might have met my nutritional needs… But I’m not, I’m 6″1″ with a reasonably good diet. I never spent so much money on food in the hospital shop to fill the gaps….

Believe it or not, but after surgery what a patient needs is high calorie food with protein that’s quickly digested: this is what sausage rolls and other junk food provide. Giving someone an apple or veg after surgery will fill them up without really providing the calories they need to repair their body. Healthy eating is important but when you are recovering from a major sickness calorie dense food is more important.

High calorie food after surgery is fine if that’s what the patient needs, but hight calorie inedible food with no nutrients at all is not good for anyone.

No no no no no!! There is no situation on this earth where someone needs to eat pizza, chips or sausage rolls, and definitely not a situation involving recovering from illness/surgery.

If a person needs protein then they should be offered high quality protein like chicken breast, fish etc (NOT PROCESSED)

It’s been shown that eating processed meat like sausages/ ham etc increases risk of bowel cancer. I can’t even fathom the utter gall of the hse to try to tell us that they take individual nutritional needs into consideration!!!

And Chips and burger and jelly and ice cream are not suitable for diabetics , but my mum was served this , despite the DIABETIC sign above her bed

I was at St Finbarr’s with a friend today. In the waiting room, the noise was unbearable- that angry man Jeremy Kyle screaming from the TV and a deafening racket from the enormous soft drink dispensing machines.

I said to the receptionist that it’s a bit strange to be selling fizzy drinks in a cancer cell treatment waiting room and she made some smart-ass comment about how rabbit food would be banned and people are entitled to a choice. No choice about the effing racket from the enormous fridges though!

I pointed out to her that many people had been against banning smoking in hospitals as well………..how much nicer, more relaxing and dignified would it be for the waiting room to be a quiet unintrusive place with people being offered a glass of water with a slice of lemon in it when they come in.

It’s not rocket science but this fat receptionists attitude shows how difficult it can be to change things.

I was in James’ hospital a while back. I was there from 5pm and at 3am the nurse finally gave me a bed in the corridor and told me I could have a sandwich. I am coeliac so I couldn’t eat it and that i would just wait until the morning. Her reply was that if I was hungry enough I would eat it. Considering the amount of taxes we all pay surely we can expect a higher quality of food for sick people?

That’s crazy telling a coeliac “if your hungry enough you’d eat it” about bread. Absolutely crazy….that’s like telling a thirsty person to drink contaminated water.

If it was a nurse that was very unprofessional of her. Are you sure it was a nurse and not an orderly?

No it was definitely a nurse. It was the same person who put my I.V. Cannula in so she had to be a nurse. She did seem under pressure but yes she was very unprofessional.

My husband was admitted to James’s after an accident, so I had to give his details. He’s coeliac too, I mentioned itb& offered to bring in bread, etc. Was told “no, we can deal with that” & got the catering supervisor for me, who told me “no problems, that’s a low-salt diet…” Deep breath, explained gluten contamination to them…Next morning, my hubby got normal, sliced pan toast for breakfast…GAAAH!

In any pictures of him, James Reilly looks fat as f*ck

: )

It’s exactly that!

Spot on.

Or ketchup

A simple option could be for vetted takeaways(i.e. Health Ones) to supply hot cooked meals straight to the wards…

Have special containers which are cleaned before use… Food is delivered to hospital and a poter delivers the food(helps stop infection)…

Food Provider pays the porter if needed, i.e.Euro a Meal….

Generally speaking some lovely food could be delivered

Those frozen (made from powderd egg) omelettes are disgusting, St. James in Dublin serve the best hospital food, Beaumont and the Mater – bring your own!!

limerick maternity has brilliant food too

My elderly father is in the Mater at the moment and is very pleased with the food. So far he has had salads, rich and creamy soups that he would have sworn were home made, and really good, healthy dinners. Not a fry, a chip or a pizza in sight

Nonsense !

Horsemeat
Served
Everyday
:-D

It might not even be horse meat.

They’re playing the role of an actual spring roll.

Totally agree! The Coombe is an absolute disgrace… Burnt fried cr*p, always white bread, etc. No regard for reduced iron levels, breast feeding suitable food, etc. One day the “choice” was a ham salad, fry or gammon steak so pig, pig or pig which for those of us who can’t eat pork was pretty useless. I ordered veggie & was given a rubbery chicken breast. Btw for those thinking a ham salad is a healthy choice to offer it consisted of 1 slice of ham, 1 lettuce leaf, 1 slice of tomato, 1 slice of cucumber & a tin of sweet corn… Not enough to feed a 2 year old child never mind a new mother.

That’s no excuse for wasting resources and further compromising the health of vulnerable people.

I was thinking the same. There are people who won’t or can’t eat real food. I was in an upmarket restaurant in Cheltenham once and sharing a large table with some Dubs when one of them upon seeing his 5 star food said, “what’s this muck?” :)

Medically feeding patients bad food they eat is better than good food they pick at and leave 3/4s of uneaten…

Sorry Andrew, you are wrong. There is an education deficit here. People should never be given bad food just because that’s what they have been used to. There is an opportunity when under medical supervision to educate people on proper nutrition. Plus, what about those who do eat proper food? Why should they have to suffer further? Again, it is a waste of resources and taxpayers money to provide food with no or low nutritional value.

Naive much?

This is medicine, not life coaching… Admitted treated, discharged. Because there’s a line of paitents dying who need the beds and the doctors.

Doctors and nurses are the resources, more scarce in these times than ever and your suggesting their time is least wasted making

(Cut off)

Broccoli airplanes and telling full grown adults to eat up.. It’s good for them

Naive? Look in the mirror, sir!

Some hospitals can manage to provide perfectly nutritious meals so there is no excuse for bad food. A friend of mine who has diabetes and kidney failure has to attend hospital twice a week and usually has to spend the day there. The dietitian visits the ward regularly and distributes diet and nutrition information to the patients pointing out the foods that are harmful to their condition. Then lunch is delivered with precisely the type of food that they are warned against. They have to eat as they cannot go more than a few hours without food with their condition. When the patients complain about this, they are told there is nothing can be done about it. This is not acceptable. Nutrition is an important aspect of medical care. The very least that vulnerable people in hospital can expect is that they are given the basic care of being fed properly.

Silly comment, what about a broken leg?

great when you go to hospital and they serve up up sausages and chips and maybe some bacon. perhaps if you ask for halal food then they can tell you its a hospital not a hotel

@ Abdul al Rawi – you are right about one thing, it is a hospital, if you are there you are sick, therefore you more than anyone else requires healthy nutritious food.

That’s a ridiculous comment. There’s people who could be hospitalised for months, should they not expect a decent standard of food that meets their dietary requirements? I’ve been in hospital just under a month here in Melbourne and get weekly visits from a dietician who goods through everything. If someone is in hospital they NEED good nutritious food, its that simple.

It’s catered food. What do you expect. 3 meals a day. The food has to be prepared and cooked in super clean environment as people have immunology problems with being sick. They your talking day for a 300 bed hospitals 90meals a day. Prepared, cooked, kept warm to prevent bacteria growing and served. You can’t be expecting a fine home cooked meal. It’s just not feasible.

Seamus. That is a very low comment what has religion got to do with any thing. Can there not be atheist or agnostic people that hail from the Middle East. We are people regardless of our colour creed or race! Poor show on your behalf.

‘Catered’, you realise that this term by its very nature implies food custom chosen for specific purposes. Frozen chicken nuggets and Smash et all serve no dietary purpose. Its a disgrace. I’m not saying you need a Michelin star chef checking every tray, but for God sake food with a nutritious value shouldnt be too much to ask for. You can still have good food that’s kept heated in bambories in a large kitchen and ready to serve. It seems to me like the HSE is cutting tyge costs on patients food when they should be trimming the fat from the over bloated management levels that aimlessly roam hospitals with clip boards and serving NO purpose.

@ Abdul al Rawi “you said that it is a hospital not a hotel” the inference i got from that is that a patient should be happy with whatever is put in front of them. i am simply using your own logic as regards halal food. biologically speaking you don’t actually need halal food, you can survive on non halal food. yet i am sure that if you or indeed any Muslim went to a hospital or even prison for that matter you would be supplied with halal food. why because you as a Muslim would have a problem with eating non halal food. By the same token whilst yes patients can “survive” on cheap nasty junk food. they are not going to like it they are not going to thrive on it They are going to feel sick from it and there is a good chance that they will simply refuse to eat it. as we say over here whats sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander in other words either everyone eats the junk food ie sausages chips and other pork products and that includes Muslims or hospitals start sorting out this mess once and for all and start serving proper food

@Abdul al Rawi what has religion got to do with the issue absolutely nothing. it is simply that you do not seem to able able to grasp the concept as to why people need to eat or not eat certain foods i am trying to put it into a context that is relevant to you, yea you may be an atheist but based on you name i am assuming you come from an Islamic background, of course my argument works equally well for Jews Mormons cealiacs. take you pick and substitute Muslims for any of the above and more

I haven’t seen a good old bigot comment for ages.
Thank you!

Michael how do u know that i was in hospital last yr for 4 days and bar the toast and cereal i didn’t eat anything else and Im certainly not a sponger. I just expect half decent food when your in hospital your there cos your sick so how is serving up shit food going to make u any better.

That’s a ridiculous comment to make. That’s like saying that people that complain about the substandard services on a train or a bus are a gang of over entitled spongers and shouldn’t they be happy enough that there’s buses or trains at all. We shouldn’t be aiming at the very minimum in our standards, we should be striving to offer proper health care from start to finish. Someone eating a stale spice burger sitting on a trolley in a hallway for a fortnight is hardly inspiring hope for our healthcare is it?? Or should we be happy that there’s trolleys and hallways at all?