Hospital patients have complained that they have been served meals “not suitable for dogs” and porridge that looks like they are old in a number of complaints filed this year.
Others said relatives were left without food or, in some cases, without water while lying on trolleys in emergency rooms for hours.
The complaints were filed by disgruntled patients and relatives with the Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) and forwarded to the Irish Independent under freedom of information.
They left me without dinner twice and one night
They show that despite efforts to improve standards, there is still a long way to go to shake off the unsavory reputation of hospital food.
A former patient told the watchdog, “They left me without dinner twice and one night I was given food that wasn’t suitable for a dog.”
Another said when she went upstairs to a station – from the ER where she got good food – the meals she was served were “awful”.
The patient said, “How can a cup of tea be so badly wrong? … there was mush that looked like sewage, cold food, reheated creamy potatoes … is there a special catering school to make station food so unappetizing? as possible?”
Others described how, while visiting relatives, they found that untouched food had hardened on a plate.
Another patient was hospitalized with instructions to follow a strictly calorie-controlled diet. He ended up gaining two pounds during his hospital stay, with one nurse commenting that he had “big appetites on discharge”.
The man’s relative said he would have to return to the emergency room later and staff had been briefed on his strict dietary regimen. But he ended up getting a breakfast with his total calorie limit for the day.
The pressure is highest in busy acute care hospitals
Another person said her mother didn’t appear to have been given any food in the ER and she knew this because her clothes, which usually get soiled during a meal, were immaculate. Another said her late father returned home with serious weight loss after receiving a food and fluid thickener, which left him feeling satiated on top of his already poor appetite.
Busy acute care hospitals are where the pressure is at its highest, and several hospitals still have to use systems that cook, chill and reheat food before serving it to patients.
There are also issues with transporting food plates from the kitchen to a hotbox, which can take nearly an hour for some patients to arrive.
The HSE has previously found that hospital patients did not eat up to half of the meals prepared for them, resulting in around 5,600 tonnes of food being wasted each year.
This can be due to several reasons including illness and lack of appetite, oversized portions and also the quality of the meal served.
A spokesman for the HSE said that “each hospital manages its own budget for catering”.
He said: “All patients will be provided with meals as needed and in line with all relevant clinical guidelines and in the context of dietary requirements and needs.
“With regard to patients in emergency departments, each department conducts a risk assessment on the provision of hot meals throughout the day.”
