Hospital caterers respond to Lansley’s patient nutrition comments

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley told BBC One's Andrew Marr Show that "buying standards" would improve, prompting "better nutrition for patients". His remarks follow criticism about the quality of food served in NHS hospitals and concerns that some patients are receiving too little nourishment. Janice Gillan, national chair of the HCA, said: "We are delighted to hear that hospital food is on the Government's agenda. This clearly raises the priority level for food and is a positive acknowledgement of food's important role for patient wellbeing and recovery. "Hospital caterers support the call for national minimum standards for food. However, there is a need for a greater understanding of the wider challenges of producing and delivering food to patients on our hospital wards. "What we really need is for national minimum standards to be applied to the whole of the process of patient food provision and that means for food service as well as food production. "Food is the simplest form of medicine and is as integral to patient care and wellbeing as medication and treatment. "As such, the patient has to be in a position to consume the food including being given assistance to eat where needed, otherwise no matter how consistent the standards or how high quality and fresh the ingredients, a patient not having eaten the meal for whatever reason, will gain zero nutritional benefit from it and the whole purpose of creating wholesome, freshly cooked meals in the first place will be to little avail. "We wholeheartedly agree with the need for nutritional care to be 'personalised' to the individual patient. The underlying message from all the speakers at the HCA's national conference in March, which included dietitians and nurses, was the need for all members of the clinical care team as well as NHS Trust Boards to recognise the important contribution good nutrition can make to improving clinical outcomes. "The emphasis was placed on how good nutrition helps with the prevention or reduction of certain hospital acquired health conditions such as bed sores and on how a more personalised approach to nutritional care can improve patient wellbeing, aid recovery and accelerate discharge as well as help meet targets for reducing NHS costs."