NHS hospitals spending less than £5 a day on food
11 January 2012
Almost one in ten NHS hospital trusts are spending less than £5 a day on breakfast, lunch and dinner for each patient, according to figures from the NHS Information Centre.
While the average expenditure is £8.58 per day, some are spending as little as £2.57.
In the latest National Survey of NHS inpatients (2010), 21% rated hospital food as very good while 36% rated it good - an improvement on results in previous years. A total of 13% rated the food poor compared to 16% in 2002.
More than three-quarters (79%) said they were offered a choice of food and just 6% said they were not, rising to 13% of those who had stayed just one night.
Private hospitals highlight "hotel services" such as catering as an advantage of private care over the NHS. After securing the contract to run an NHS hospital in Cambridgeshire (a first for the independent sector) Circle partner Ali Parsa told the BBC that Circle Bath offered NHS patients a hospital designed by Norman Foster, services designed by Mandarin Oriental and Michelin starred chefs "at NHS prices".
Source: hi-mag.com, January 2012