INJURED British troops are being served up below-par meals because Birmingham’s superhospital was built without a kitchen, a health watchdog has warned.
Concerns have been raised that military patients are getting morale-busting tepid food at the new £2.6 billion Queen Elizabeth Hospital as they are not cooked on site.
Coun Peter Smallbone, a Birmingham Health Scrutiny Committee member, said he received a complaint from a patient on a military wing who was being treated alongside amputees flown back from Afghanistan.
Health scrutiny bosses are now calling on University Hospital Birmingham Foundation Trust, running the Edgbaston hospital, to ensure meals are served at a minimum temperature and that this is inspected as part of its annual audit.
“Someone decided not to build a kitchen at the new hospital so the food gets trucked in,” said Coun Smallbone. “A patient on a military wing reported that the hot meals, while nutritious, were routinely tepid.
“It is demoralising and will mean patients are not as inclined to eat it. This has clear therapeutic and morale implications.
“Several members of the health scrutiny committee expressed concerns on the absence of an on-site kitchen while the new hospital was being built.”
Trust bosses decided to pay for ‘airline style’ ready meals to be delivered in and heated up at the new hospital, which treats more than 1,200 patients, as it was built without a full working kitchen.
Coun James Hutchings, a governor at University Hospital Birmingham Foundation Trust, revealed there was “no budget” to include full working kitchens and hire chefs when building was taking place in 2008.
A Hospital spokeswoman said: “The QEHB uses a cook-chill food system which means food is delivered in bulk, prepared and heated in a ward-based kitchen, and served at the bedside from ‘regeneration’ trolleys which keep meals at the right temperature. Each patient has different preferences however from the food surveys carried out on every ward, the overall patient feedback shows that inpatient food is considered to be good quality and nutritional.
“There are some minor improvements that could be made and we are already taking action to address these points with our catering team.”
Most British servicemen and women from around the world are now treated at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in the military wing.
