Hospital meals cost less than prison meals: Official UK report

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDMar 21 2011

In shocking news some British hospitals are reported to be spending as little as £1 a meal, compared with £2.10 for the average prison meal. The official figures show that the spending on hospital food has been slashed by up to two-thirds over the last five years. In some hospitals in England budgets have fallen by 62 per cent – with meals costing little more than £1.

The NHS spends £500 million on catering every year, but there has been a wave of complaints about poor quality and malnutrition, especially from the elderly. The numbers of hospital patients becoming malnourished have doubled in three years to a record 13,500. The figures analysed from NHS Information Centre data show that around one in five trusts has reduced spending on food since 2004-05 – 36 out of 191. At least 20 trusts spend less than £5 a day feeding each patient. The figures show St George’s Hospital, South London, spent least – just £1.04 on each meal or £3.11 a day – when it used to spend £6.67 a day.

But a spokesman disputed the 53 per cent drop, saying the figure covered only the costs to the catering department. When snacks, drinks, dietary supplements and late meal requests are included the figure is £6.80 a day, he said. Another big percentage drop in spending was 62 per cent over five years at the Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust in West Sussex. The amount spent per day went down from £10.97 in 2004-05 to £4.11 last year. A spokesman said the cash only covered the cost of three main meals and a drink. There was a 61 per cent cut at St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospital, down from £23.67 to £9.06 per patient per day and at Ealing Hospital, London, down from £10.37 to £4. At the Royal Brompton and Harefield Trust, covering hospitals in London and Hertfordshire, there was a 58 per cent cut in spending, from £16.56 a day to £6.89. Even less is spent at Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals, down from £13.85 in 2004-05 to £6.

Roger Goss, co-director of Patient Concern, said the problem would only get worse as hospitals struggle to make efficiency savings. He added, “Hospital food is a disaster. Each hospital is allowed to decide how much it spends but the Department of Health should set a minimum amount.” According to a spokesman for the hospital nutrition charity, the British Association of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, it was outrageous that food was not a major priority. “Nutrition care in hospitals is about more than just the food quality, and not enough is being spent on it…Patients need to be treated as individuals and given help to eat the food put in front of them. We’re wasting money because of a failure to get these policies right,” she said.

A Department of Health spokesman in retaliation said, “Hospitals make their own decisions about their food and, over time, the amount spent will differ between hospitals.”But it added, “The Care Quality Commission has tough powers for cases where proper standards are not met.”