Need some advice please

[StripyPixieSocks]

Yeah, that's just it, when you're down and sick eating something nice can lift your spirits... it's simple things!

He's been there three days now and I don't think he's seen a single vegetable unless you count the green mashed potato!

With the Government hounding everyone about healthy eating and getting your 5-a-day, not eating too much saturated fats etc they should be ashamed letting the hospitals serve what they do.

I realise I might be on a hiding into nothing but if I don't try I'll never know... better to have tried and lost so-to-speak.

I mean I'm not demanding they cook everything from scratch and serve gourmet meals but when the food is completely inedible (and two others on the ward refused to eat it also) it's not a very good sign. I know the Queen Elizabeth is a huge hospital in a city as well and I understand that there are probably many, many more patients in there than say Macclesfield but still... if it were junk and edible that would at least be a start.

I'm going to be starting my campaign (if that's what you call it) calling for at least a minimum level standard of food. I know hospital food will never be wonderful but it should at least surely be edible by the people they serve it to...

Good on you guys for your Guerilla cooking

Thanks guys... and girls... I'm feeling much better this morning after a good nights sleep... I just get all mopy and teary when I'm tired after coming home. It's just too damn quiet without all his cheek and mischief, even Beany (who is my OH's little shadow) is moping around in his cage... bless him!

[ajs88]

all my best wishes and your doing the right thing with the food

[Graye]

OH SPS, poor you (and OH). I hope he feels better soon and can get out of there.

I know it's a campaign you can do without at the moment but sometimes it helps in moments of crisis to have something to get your teeth into and apparently hospital meals is it for you (excuse the pun!).

I tried casting my mind back to when I was last in hospital but it was 32 years ago when my son was born. All I can remeber was I had a choice from lists which were brought round the day before and I because none of it looked very nice I spent a week living on veggie sandwiches, the only option I was prepared to try. When my DIL was in having her second baby a couple of months ago we took all her food in - I had assumed it was because she is known to be a bit fussy, so I didn't see anything which was on offer. As she was only there for a couple of days it didn't become a problem one way or the other.

Perhaps you could challenge your local MP, Boris Johnson, Jamie Oliver and the executives of your local council to sample a meal there? But I suppose they would miraculously produce something wonderful if you did. Or perhaps smuggle a few portions out and deliver them to your local paper? It would make a great story and give your campaign some publicity. Stand back and wait for a media onslaught though...

[Annpan]

I tried casting my mind back to when I was last in hospital but it was 32 years ago when my son was born. All I can remeber was I had a choice from lists which were brought round the day before and I because none of it looked very nice I spent a week living on veggie sandwiches, the only option I was prepared to try.

In Scotland the policy in Maternity units is to have a dining room (an old birthing room or small ward - still has relavent equipment on the walls) which all the ladies have to make their way too (to encourage walking) quite a sight to see all these ladies very carefully sitting down on those plastic chairs...oooooch!
So you get to 'pick' your food, cafeteria style - you see the queue moving very slowly as all the food looks equally disgusting.


I like the idea of smuggling out some food to take to a local paper.... good one

[Rosendula]

Here's one from me too Please send your OH my best wishes for a speedy recovery.

I didn't want to stay in hospital overnight when I had Katie, but was persuaded to by the midwife who said it was better to be there a good few hours after the birth, even though there was nothing wrong with her, just in case of complications. He was a fantastic midwife (completely different to the others who had delivered my eldest two), so I did as he suggested. Big mistake. Just trying to get something to eat and a bit of care was an uphill battle. OK they offered me something a few minutes after the birth, but I was too knackered to eat then. I barely saw anyone after that for the rest of the night. By the morning, I still hadn't had anything to eat and was looking forward to my breakfast. None came. Finally, around 11am ish, someone came to ask what I wanted for dinner! I told them I want breakfast first and that I hadn't eaten since early hours of the yesterday morning and was extremely hungry. I was told I should have gone and got some breakfast! Now I don't mind going to get my own, but no-one told me I was meant to, and even when I had asked about it I was told someone would see to me soon. In the end, after complaining loudly in front of the other patients that were now on the ward and all of their visitors, they very begrudgingly brought me some toast. I think they had tried to avoid giving me lunch on the day of the birth too. I'd gone in with contractions 4-5 mins apart and they sent me home again saying 'it might go away yet'. I was back and had given birth within a few hours of that. I'm sure it was just to save them some money. So I can't really say what the food's like in my local hospital other than hard to get!

Good luck with your campaign SPS. I've just signed your petition. Let us know if there's anything else we can do.

[Rosendula]

I also meant to say that despite what I have previously said about him on another thread, it's worth contacting Alan Johnson. I had said that he nods in all the right places but then doesn't do anything. I was wrong. I sent him an email to ask him to sign a petition, and not only did he reply to me personally to explain that he's not allowed to sign it, he passed on my comments to other people and asked for my home address so that he could let me know the outcome of the correspondence.

[StripyPixieSocks]

You are all utter stars, thanks for the replies, hugs and support I really needed it over the last couple of days and might again but right now, tonight I actually feel quite chipper even if I am absolutely knackered!

I was going to photograph the food with my mobile phone but they gave him a sandwich and an apple tonight so it wasn't totally disgusting. His Mom and myself took him loads of stuff in and I brought him a small pot of his favourite yoghurt which he was over the moon about and his Mom brought half a bakery I think but he's got lots of stuff now if he wants something better or even edible!

He had a bit of a bad night last night, he was awake most of the night because he was coughing and the guy in the next bed died so the nurses and whatnot were in and out all night. Shame really he was talking when Pat was admitted then yesterday he just zonked right downhill and his wife was so upset, bless her.

The consultant came around this afternoon and he was absolutely top notch, asked loads of questions and told Pat he was annoyed because they should have done all the tests by now and told him he would be in at least until this time next week but they will get a proper diagnosis, get a dermatologist to look at his psoriasis and get that sorted and then get him home and deal with anything via outpatients.

We asked if his Psoriasis could be the kind that effects lungs that we mentioned to his GP about 6 months ago when things started getting really bad and the GP's answer was "don't be stupid". We told the consultant what the GP said and he was furious as although it's one of those 1 in 1000 cases he thinks we were actually right! If so the GP in question is going to get a rocket firmly shoved up his... *ahem* anyway... he was also annoyed that the same GP hadn't referred him to a dermatologist OR referred him for physiotherapy on his back which he was expressly asked to do.

So, thanks to that <insert rude word here> Pat is in hospital and could have permanent damage to his lungs because it could have been treated much, much earlier.

But... he's chirpy still and eating some of the stuff we brought him and just sent me a text saying he was off for a shower and then going to get some sleep!

On the plus side I was worried I wouldn't cope in London all on my own but I have and I even braved catching the bus all by myself... sounds silly I know but I suffer from horrific panic attacks so this is like going from running for the bus to completing the marathon! So while he's getting better I'm learning once again to cope with stuff I didn't think I would be able to GO ME

Once again thanks for the hugs it's been a real pick me up when I get home to a quiet house with no one to nag or tease

[Smooth Hound]

sorry to hear about your oh, hope hes getting better
i recently spent 3 weeks in hospital in glasgow, so i sympathise with you, the food was mostly horrible, i was having difficulty eating anyway, and for a whole week ate nothing, i was put on a drip, i was trying mmy best to eat what i could, and if the food had been nice then i may just have got more in me. on a couple of occasions my choices on the menu were ignored, i lost a fair bit of weight,
i have since learnt that alot of people , especially older folk actually suffer malnutricion due to the food, and sometimes due to the erson being unabled to reach where the food is put, the staff just take it away again.
eventually i got someone to bring me in my favorite sandwiches, and for the next week i ate them.
its all very well having the latest drugs in hospital, but i would have thought that getting food down you would be high on the priority list.
also i learnt that the food budget per person in hospitals is half that of prisons.

[StripyPixieSocks]

also i learnt that the food budget per person in hospitals is half that of prisons.

That's interesting, someone else mentioned that to me yesterday and said "stick that in your arsenal and stick it to the Government, go to the papers and embarrass them into doing something about it"

I'm putting together (slowly) a campaign to bring at least a minimum level of standard to the meals they serve. At the moment I am sussing out who to go after and exactly what to say and if I can get any 'big names' onside.

I've even dragged out my NLP books to refresh my memory of putting in hidden commands to letters etc. It's a very interesting concept, you can word something so precisely people simply cannot say no and can be forced into doing things. It's the same concept as the car salesmen and door-to-door hard sell people are trained to do. It's worked before for me when I had a big fight with my local Council where I used to live and it will work again if I'm a bit canny and clever

Might just play on public disgust if the prison budget thing is right especially as I live near Belmarsh High Security Prison where the terrorists who carried out the London tube bombings are kept... oh the papers would love the fact they get fed better than sick people who have paid their dues to society and never broken any laws wouldn't they?

Hey, I'm not above using any trick in the book if it means the people in the Queen Elizabeth get fed something verging on edible and not packed full of fat, salt and god knows what else! Given that some of them are terminally ill through no fault of their own they deserve to be fed a decent meal while they're stuck in there!

Evil? Me? Never...

[Smooth Hound]

go for it , i wish you luck. apparently the food is tasted now ad again, in aberdeen my ex,s sisters husbands brother , who is some sort of management there, does it, he was selected on the basis that he eats anything, this he told me whilst laughing, they seemed to think it was amusing, i wasnt amused at all as at the time i had just come out of there after a 3 day stay, especially as i know for a fact that he and his work chums eat at jimm chungs lunchtime chinese buffet nearly every day. i sort of thought well one day youll find your self in hospital and will have a taster of your amusement. but then again i would imagine he woul be private, probably paid for as apart of his wage in aberdeen hospital, ensuring he doesnt have to spen time in there at all. as you can see i didnt like him i thought he was a smug ba d. probably because he is

[mrsflibble]

i hope he's feeling better stripey. when jim was in hospital he was so depressed with the food i took his meals to him when i could. the nurses were happy for me to do that, i think because i threatened to complain.

one sandwich he was given was so bad i took it to a nurse and said "go on, YOU eat a bit" when she refused i said "why the hell should you expect a sick man to then? he's in here for appendixitis as a complication of food poisoning! you're expecting him to get better yet you're feeding him this?!". it was a "chicken" and "stuffing" sandwich. the "chicken" (cat? dog? certainly not the darling little bird) was dry, not just dry it's been overcooked, but dry as in it's started to go transluscent rouns the edges. it was cut as thinly as is humanly possible and there was only one piece of it in there, thats 3"x1.5" down the middle of a normal loaf-size lump of bread. the stuffing smelled mouldy and was actually clammy to the touch. one of the slices of bread had the white beginnings of mould on one crust, you know, when it starts to bloom white and powdery but hasn't actually gone blue yet? like that.

eurgh *shudders*

[Rosendula]

Just had a look at your petition and there are 100 signatures already. Keep signing folk! You only need your computer, internet and an email address for this one, so mobile phone-less people welcome!

[Green Aura]

Signed it.

[Smooth Hound]

ive signed, but how would i go about sending the link to people i know to sign

[Smooth Hound]

ive just looked at the list and my name isnt there are you sure its working properly