Hospital Food Bingo?

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Hospital Food Bingo?

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Hospital food has never enjoyed a great reputation in Britain. Stories of how you can get sick while in hospital from eating the fayre that is served up have been a stand-up cliche for decades.

After high profile attempts to improve nutrition in schools spearheaded by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, attention is now switching to hospitals - thanks to a blog kept by an anonymous journalist. The journalist is in hospital for a long term stay for an unspecified illness and has been blogging his experiences in general. While he proclaims that his care has been exceptional, his gaze has falled witheringly on the food that he has been served.

In his game - that has been dubbed 'hospital food bingo' by the media - he has uploaded photographs of his meals and invited readers of his blog to identify what he has been served! Whilst some things such as pies are easily identified, the humour comes from the mixture of brown, lumpy and largely liquidified foodstuffs that could equally be gravy, stew, curry or 'unidentified'. More scabrous readers have posted such unappealing suggestions as 'cat sick'.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "Good quality food for patients improves their health and their overall experience of services. The majority of patients are satisfied with the food they receive in hospitals, and we are working to improve services further."

While his blog is good humoured about his experience, there is obvious embarassment that yet again a government funded service is failing its customers - and it would be no surprise to find it another political football ahead of the next general election.