Yeah I get the complications and am not complaining too much about the cooked meals because of it. But sandwiches and soup to an edible standard isnât too difficult.
Plenty if us are mobile - to varying degrees - I would have loved to walk to the cafe, swiped my card, and helped myself to a servery or buffer like set up and paid directly to the catering company than pay for food I couldnât eat.
For those not mobile give them the option for hospital food or pay for catered food.
Bullshit. The â â â â they serve up does not cost less than simple, healthy alternatives. It just isnât a priority for them. Salads. Noodles. Eggs. Anything but that literally stinking, rubbish.
Thereâs plenty of money to go around. The issue is where to spend it. Itâs a public hospital, funded by the tax payer. How much is allocated to the hospital as opposed to anywhere else is a choice. So they could have a better budget for meals if the right people deemed it necessary. You know - those people who donât actually ever go into a public hospitalâŚ
Well, yes it does. I donât lnow how many of those meetings youâve been in, but it does actually cost less.
And, as I have been trying to explain, theyâre funded on how many patients they treat - turnover of beds, and on what they give to, or put in, the patient that medicare deems rebatable.
If theyâre spending money on something that doesnât count under either of those categories, or (measurably) improve patient outcomes, theyâre basically flushing it.
They donât get given that money back.
Last one from me - Iâm already two replies deeper in than I like.
Same budget:
The cost of the meals which weâre disputing is not going to get resolved. Iâm more than confident in my argument that the food they serve can be bettered greatly, and cost the same.
Overall budget:
You mentioned they are funded on the number of patients they treat.
I say they could be funded more.
You are sticking with an incumbent system of funding, ratios, and standards.
I am not.
Watching Turdball standing up gloating like a cocksmack, saying âWhat A Day!, ⌠What A Day!â. as the SSM bill is about to be passed into law, ⌠after he put the whole LGBTI community through hell with his bullshit survey, and caused untold harm & pain to so many, and reportedly a number of suicides, simply because he didnât have the spine nor the agates, to just make it happen.
Prick should be hanging his head in shame over it, but instead is standing there basking in the Bonhomie, as if itâs all for him and this is actually HIS achievement.
On the cost thing, when I was in student boarding digs, a group put up alternative , easy to prepare more nutritious recipes at no extra cost for delivery to same numbers at same time. We had a win but it took a lot of work to convince them.
Fundings more complicated then purely patient turnover. Every patient has a set funding level but this changes depending on complexity of the patient.
And for every patient I have who complains about the food I have at least 2-3 who smash all of it. And your not cooking for 100s, try 1000s! Do that on a limited budget, meeting huge range of requirements (changes in salt, protein, potassium, energy, fibre, texture, shit we have a diet for low iodine.), ages and cultures.
And dietary requirements donât always get you a better meal, itâs all cooked at the same place. Plenty of people complain about our special meals.
Nutrition is certainly looked at (itâs apart of the accreditation for hospitals). No oneâs serving you food you hate on purpose.
Well, Labor had the chance to have it fixed during the Rudd/Gillard years, but squibbed it badly.
Then Shorten carried on as if he alone had got it through, despite the vast majority of No-voting electorates being safe Labor.
Neither side can be proud of their efforts, but I just wish Turnbull had told his troglodyte opponents like Abbott, Abetz, Andrews et al to royally go f**k themselves. Iâm sure Christopher Pyne could give them some pointers.
On taste and nutrition, it can be bearable for a few days, but when you are in long stay and have no choices, in my view the nutritional input of cabbage and carrots boiled to death cannot meet nutritional standards. The longer term stay nutritional standards need to be disaggregated from the short term.
Heffâs girl appears to have suffered psychologically from her short stay. Imagine what it is like for long stay, often immobile patients who are virtual prisoners. On the other hand, medical, nursing and physio support in public hospitals far outstrips private in my experience .
Its not asking much to make decent sandwiches and soups. At least we can lift them to edible standards.
Anyway, to tie off my contribution to this - and apologize it carried on for a while - I wish to impress my deep appreciation to the nurses, doctors, support staff and administrators. They were outstanding.
Long term patients are certainly taken into account. We have a 28 day menu cycle before stuff gets repeated!
If youâre so interested you can easily read the guidelines Here
Itâs certainly not perfect, and there a pleasure to of things that can be done to improve nutrition in hospitals outside of the mend. I see it at both the patient level and the food service level (although not at a production level). And I have tasted pretty much all our meals. Thereâs something I would eat most days.