Government wastes over £50m on hospital food failure, says report

The findings come in a report from a coalition of health and environmental campaigners, who are calling for a new law to improve all food served in public sector institutions. The report, entitled 'A Decade of Hospital Food Failure' is critical of the Government's refusal to introduce legal standards to improve the quality, healthiness and environmental benefits of hospital food, despite repeatedly assuring the public that healthy and sustainable hospital food is a top priority, particularly in helping support patient recovery. The report points the finger at "weak and expensive" initiatives including: • The £40m Better Hospital Food Initiative: Launched in 2001 to improve the quality of hospital food. Scrapped in 2006 after poor take-up. • The £10m NHS Plan: Launched 2000, partly to improve nutrition in hospitals. By 2009, a survey of 400 healthcare professionals said nutritional care in hospitals had improved 'not at all' or 'not much'. • The £2.5m Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative: Launched 2003 to improve the sustainability of public sector food, including in hospitals. Mothballed in 2009 after poor take-up. Researchers found that the only consistent improvements in public sector food were in schools, where mandatory rules mean that all children can benefit from better quality food. Alex Jackson, coordinator of the Good Food for our Money campaign said: "The government has led us into an expensive ground hog day to improve hospital food and seems incapable of learning from past mistakes. One billion meals are served by public sector institutions every year, paid for by taxpayers' money. "This huge amount of food provides a unique opportunity to improve health and encourage more sustainable farming. Yet the government has failed to seize this opportunity, and continues to spend our money on issuing weak voluntary schemes and yet more guidance to public sector caterers, who are given no incentive to take action." The Department of Health defended its efforts saying: "Money spent on providing high quality nutrition to patients is not wasted. The majority of patients are satisfied with the food they receive in hospitals, and we are working to improve services further."