Hospitals sign up to protected mealtime scheme for patients
The Hospital Caterers Association's (HCA) campaign to protect patients' mealtimes is gathering pace, according to Loyd Grossman, chairman of the Better Hospital Food programme.
Already, 174 hospitals across the UK have signed up to the scheme, and Grossman was hopeful that many more chief executives and catering managers of NHS trusts would commit to the policy after trying it out on National Protected Mealtimes Day on 4 March.
"From when we first started talking about this there has been a lot of interest, but many have asked, ‘How do we do it?' So we have produced a guide on how to set up protected mealtimes in hospitals," he explained.
Grossman said the scheme was pragmatic and produced "obvious results", which encouraged other hospitals to adopt it.
The HCA believes that patients should be allowed three meals a day that are interruption-free. It said: "Where appropriate and practical, clinical procedures or routine tasks should be rescheduled so patients are not unnecessarily disturbed when eating.
"The rescheduling of clinical activities away from mealtime periods would assist nurses and ward-based teams to provide patients with vital support at mealtimes."
It hopes that 15% of the UK's 1,900 acute and non-acute hospitals will have signed up to the scheme by the end of February. Of the 174 trusts to adopt the Protected Mealtimes Day, about half are acute hospitals where clinical procedures and care are a priority. However, Grossman insisted that most hospitals would not find the changes hard to enforce.
"Any change anywhere has problems, but it is pretty straightforward. It has been embraced enthusiastically, because it can be implemented easily and produces positive results quickly."
The benefit of giving more attention to mealtimes was that patients were able to eat in comfort and therefore consumed more. This had the knock-on effect of helping them to recover quicker.
Grossman added: "Generally, it helps raise the standards of food in the NHS by saying that mealtimes should be a special time when there is calm, so patients can enjoy their food more."
He said he was keen that patients who were strong enough should be able to eat their meals at a table in a social environment. They would benefit from the social interaction, which would help boost their appetites.
Grossman said this latest idea from the Better Hospital Food programme wasn't a gimmick, but rather it was a practical scheme that brought real benefits to patients.
