Shops, restaurants and catering companies that sell food in NHS hospitals have been rated for their commitment to healthy eating.
Now, a league table compiled by The Campaign for Better Hospital Food, part of an alliance for better food and farming called Sustain, ranks providers in order of how well they meet NHS England targets on healthy checkouts, food advertising and price promotions in hospitals.
NHS England has set targets for healthier checkouts, food advertising and price promotions for all shops, cafés and restaurants serving food on hospital grounds. Brands operating in hospitals have to meet these targets by March 2017 (called CQUIN targets), or risk NHS England withholding funds.
The Royal Voluntary Service comes out top in the Healthy Hospital Food League Table, while Subway and Burger King sit at the bottom of the rankings for failing to meet NHS targets for the promotion of healthier food.
Katherine Button from the Campaign for Better Hospital Food said: “It's disappointing that Subway and Burger King, out of all the major brands serving food in hospitals, are the only two we found not to be working towards NHS England targets on promotion of healthier food.
“This league table draws attention to the behaviour of big food brands and holds them to account for failing to ensure they play their part in excluding less-healthy food promotions from hospital premises.
“We applaud the efforts of the Royal Voluntary Service and we’re pleased that so many brands will meet the NHS England targets for healthy food we fought so hard to secure.”
Among contract operators, ISS is best placed and commended for committing to getting all the brands used to meet the targets by March 2017.
Compass, through its Medirest healthcare arm, and Sodexo were down the rankings as a result of contracts with Subway and Burger King that do not meet the targets on healthy price promotions, advertising and checkouts.
Sodexo spokesperson Clare Collins said: “We welcome the new CQUIN guidelines. All Sodexo branded retail outlets in hospitals – which represent around 90% of our total healthcare outlets – already fully comply with the guidelines in advance of the deadline. There are currently nine branded franchises that we are proactively working with to try and achieve compliance by March 2017.”
PS100 chair Andy Jones told BBC Radio Five Live: “Personally, I wouldn’t have Burger King in hospitals. But if they’ve got to be there then we need to ensure through the correct contract specifications that they price healthy options competitively and promote them properly.
“Yes, people should be allowed a choice, so we need to concentrate on promoting the healthy food and start the education side of things as well.
“We’ve got to ensure when new contracts are negotiated they spell out that there must be a real push to promote the healthier options to make it easier for people.”