Monday
13Aug2007
THE ENVY OF THE WORLD..
Monday, August 13, 2007 at 08:40AM 
Propagandists for the National Health Service like to boast that it is the envy of the world.
So it's interesting to note that most half of hospital kitchens fail to meet basic standards of hygiene, it has been revealed. The catalogue of breaches of food safety rules includes infestations of cockroaches and mice and used needles and syringes left on meal trays.
Environmental health reports from around the country also describe medicines being stored in kitchen fridges, milk being kept in freezers used for drugs and drinks such as orange juice being stored next to chemicals. In all, almost half of the 377 hospitals surveyed failed to meet the most basic standards of food hygiene.
Still, luckily it's the envy of the world. The Third world.
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Reader Comments (17)
It is because we believed our own boast that the NHS is the envy of the world that it now isn't. Instead of learning from the rest of the developed world we convinced ourselves that we were the best and that they should learn from us.
In regards to catering, I have just had a spell in hospital, two hospitals to be precise. The food was dire. Even airlines do better. I cannot comment on kitchen hygiene.
Peter,
Hope you are feeling better, and glad to see you managed to avoid the effects of NHS food. When my Dad was in hospital over the past few years before his death, I often saw the "meals" being served up, they looked awful. As a dying man I doubt that he would have been that bothered, he ate very little (though we brought him in little treats that he did enjoy) and you are spot on in what you say about us believing our own myths.
This is a consequence of the Privatisation process, started by the Tories, and enthusiatically continued by Labour. Catering and cleaning in hospitals were long ago hived-off to the lowest bidders. Who in turn pay the lowest wages to the most poorly educated workers - and the choice of suppliers is rubbish. It's hardly surprising that the things people moan about most (which are NOT consistent across all hospitals) are the privatised areas of cleaning and food.
As a junior Dr I experience lots of hospital canteens. The privatised ones are invariably the most dreadful.
I should add one of the suppliers is Sodexo, the same firm which was featured in the documentary film 'Super Size Me' feeding junk food to American schoolchildren
Recommend Airedale NHS hospital (just outside Keighley) for one amongst many. The food and canteen there is excellent, clean etc. It has not yet been privatised.
"This is a consequence of the Privatisation process, started by the Tories, and enthusiatically continued by Labour."
Half-correct. It's a consequence of privatisation only being done in certain areas. We can't expect bureaucrats to actually demand vale for money, as a private firm would, as opposed to simply the cheapest possible semblence of a service. The private hospitals I have been to have been second to none - excellent food, excellent staff, excellent care, clean and comfortable. Of course they're excellent, they wouldn't get customers if they were crap. The NHS, being free at the point of use (since everyone has already been forced to pay for it in taxes) will always get customers.
I should add that the relationship between the NHS and customers is an odd one. Its revenue stream comes from taxes and so is guaranteed. Indeed, if it performs well it may well recieve less money than it otherwise would as its budget may get cut. If it performs poorly, more money will be pumped in. Financially, it actually has an incentive to do badly. However, it also needs people coming in the doors to justify its budget. If everyone goes private then it might be abolished. If it really really really does badly, someone might even get sacked. So it does need to offer a bare miniumum of service. Then it also has to meet government targets to get its funding so here it has an incentive to do certain things but no incentive to do them well or to do things not on the list of targets. How the bureaucrats know exactly what people want and how they value it, in real time, is beyond me. They must be psychic.
Dr Fred,
I experience quite a few rubbish junior doctors - should we privatise them?
Dr Fred
Excellent comments. Free market zeal has had disastrous consequences for food in school canteens as well as hospitals. Thanks to Jamie Oliver's campaign last year, minimum nutrition standards are being restored to school meals after being abolished by Thatcher in 1979. For rightists, this is the nanny state in action. For the rest of us it's commonn sense.
Peter,
I would think the actual effect of Jamie Oliver's campaign, as discussed in the Saturday newspaper, is the opposite of that intended.
The so-called 'healthy' options are given the 'thumbs down' by the kids, who know what they like, and won't be dictated to by another bunch of do-gooders!
Can't say I blame them!
Peter,
Mike's right on this - I read also that kids weren't bothered about Jamie's good food.
Dr Fred -
I hope your clinical skills are better than your analysis here, otherwise the NHS is about to kill even more patients.
"The so-called 'healthy' options are given the 'thumbs down' by the kids, who know what they like"
Sweets.
Peter -
minimum nutrition standards are being restored to school meals after being abolished by Thatcher in 1979
I'll assume you're correct. The lesson then, is that you shouldn't let the state feed your child.
Minimum nutritional standards would be regained in primary schools if a 1/3 pint of milk per child were re-instated.
"For rightists, this is the nanny state in action. For the rest of us it's commonn sense."
Not that I'm a rightist, but considering I'm an advocate of private enterprise and the free market I'll assume that applies to me. However, it does not. If we accept that the state is providing education and that it must also provide food in some fashion for children during school hours then the private provision of food with the state being the buyer would be preferable if the state were capable of making any kind of informed choice. The state, however, is not. The best it can do is to set minimum standards. Again, if the state must provide education and the related food then that is preferable to private contractors with no minimum standards as in that case the state would choose the lowest bidder almost entirely regardless of quality.
However, the most preferable system would be private provision of education and food, thus avoiding the 'race to the bottom' that state purchases inevitably trigger amongst a host of other benefits.
The NHS is probably the envy of Zimbabwe right now (as is virtually anything that's functioning) but I can't think of anywhere else. I'd be in fear for my life if I had to visit my local hospital, what wirh Col-difficile and MRSA rates.