Changes in hospital food: 1984 vs 2011

A very interesting piece on changes in hospital food at the Sarborough Hospital came out a few days ago on the hospital's blog site. There has been a huge change in the food in recent decades.

The blog indicates that the General site of the Hospital had in 1984:

770 beds
2 complete, fully operational conventional kitchens
a 16 day selective menu (patients made choices from multiple options)
hundreds of complex therapeutic diets
procurement of fresh and local meat/poultry and produce
hundreds of recipes produced in house from scratch by:
15 cooks, 2 bakers, 3 salad and sandwich makers, all skilled, passionate and dedicated!
and a GREAT reputation for food!

Now the General site has:

325 beds
1 complete NOT fully operational conventional kitchen
a 7 day non-selective menu (that’s right, NO choice)
hundreds of complex therapeutic diets
procurement of 80% of all food supplies from a large multi-national food distribution company (not sure where the food is coming from)
approximately 100 recipes produced in house by:
1 full time and 2 part time cooks, 1 full time and 2 part time cold production staff, all skilled, passionate and dedicated!
an AVERAGE reputation for food

These changes are probably pretty typical for a large hospital in Ontario: but they are definitely not for the best.

But thankfully, the hospital leadership "is NOT outsourcing our service to a large uncaring multinational company. Also it is NOT forcing a change from conventional production to cold plating and rethermalization, which happened in many other hospitals."

Even better, the hospital is in the process of trying to cook more food from scratch.

This is an exciting development and I, for one, am looking forward to following developments at this hospital. Hopefully, they will spark a trend to fresh, local food that other hospitals will follow.

Comments

More spending on new hospitals and new beds? Nope

Hospital funding: There is something off about the provincial government's Budget claims on hospital capital funding (funding to build and renovate hospital beds and facilities). For what it is worth (which is not that much, given the long time frame the government cites), the province claims it will increase hospital capital spending over the next 10 years from $11 billion to $20 billion – or on average to about $2 billion per year. But, this is just a notional increase from the previous announcement of future hospital capital spending. Moreover, even if we did take this as a serious promise and not just a wisp of smoke, the government's own reports shows they have actually funded hospital infrastructure about $3 billion a year over the 2011/12-2015/16 period. So this “increase” is really a decrease from past actual spending. Even last year's (2016-17) hospital capital funding increase was reported in this Budget at $2.3 billion - i.e. about 15% more th

Ford government fails to respond to 72% increase in COVID inpatient days, deepening the capacity crisis

COVID infections continue to drive up hospital costs and inpatient hospitalizations in Ontario. For the most recent fiscal year (April 1, 2022- March 31, 2023) hospital stays related to COVID cost $1.221 billion, according to new CIHI data. This is about 4% of total hospital spending, creating a very significant new cost pressure beyond the usual pressures of population growth, aging, inflation, and rising utilization. Costs for COVID related hospitalizations increased 22.2% in Ontario in 2022/23 from the previous fiscal year, rising from $999 million to $1.221 billion. That rise is particularly notable as the OMICRON spike of late 2021 and early 2022 had passed by the the 2022/23 fiscal year. The $222 million increase in COVID hospitalization costs came in the same year as the Ford government cut special COVID funding and, in fact, cut total hospital funding by $156 million. In total, there were 60,653 COVID hospitalizations in Ontario in 2022/3, up from 47,543 in 2021/2.

Paramedic Services in Canada: Structure, Privatization, Unionization and other issues

Governance and Funding : While police and fire services are usually municipal services, Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are typically controlled by provincial governments. In Ontario, regional municipal governments have responsibility for delivering and funding EMS. But even in Ontario the province plays a key role, strictly regulating EMS, providing funding for 50% of the approved land ambulance costs, and paying 100% of the approved costs for air ambulance, dispatch, base hospitals, First Nation EMS, and for territories without municipal government. Delivery : Like police and fire services, EMS is predominantly a publicly provided service in Canada. But businesses have now made some significant in-roads into EMS, primarily Medavie, a private corporation based in the Maritimes that describes itself as not-for-profit. Medavie goes back over 70 years, with its roots in health insurance. It still operates Medavie Blue Cross with 1,900 employees. It now a

Defend Public Healthcare

Search This Blog