13th Feb 2009 - 00:00
Abstract
In a sign that the jokes about hospital food are right, sales stats from the an online takeaway portal show that patients across the UK are regularly having takeaway food delivered direct to their ward.
Patients across the country are having takeaway food delivered to their ward as opposed to eating the hospital's own food, with patients in hospitals within Yorkshire the most likely to try and avoid hospital food. Just-Eat.co.uk, have correlated their sales stats from the last year with hundreds of hospital addresses across the UK and generated a regional table of hospitals where takeaways meals are most delivered to patients. Patients being treated within Yorkshire are the most likely to order takeaway food during their stay, with more than 10,500 takeaway orders taken for the region in the last 12 months alone. London is a not-so-distant second, due in probability to the high number of patients that are treated in hospitals in the capital. The top 10 is below: 1 - Yorkshire - 10590 2 - London - 10210 3 - South East - 9447 4 - West Midlands - 8351 5 - South West - 8270 6 - North West - 7963 7 - South Wales - 6777 8 - North East - 6571 9 - East Scotland - 5544 10 - East Midlands - 3496 Sales indicate that Indian food is most popular with patients, narrowly beating pizza into second place. David Buttress, CEO of Just-Eat.co.uk commented: "There are many reasons why patients are likely to order takeaway food to their ward; but the obvious one that springs to mind is due to the well-documented public dislike for hospital food. Despite some of the orders down to doctors working late, the facts remain the same - thousands of cheeky British hospital patients love to order in."