Defend Public Healthcare

Pre-cooked food will no longer be trucked in to Alberta's smaller long term care homes.   Alberta Health Services shut down the kitchens in LTC homes with fewer than 125 beds two years ago to cut costs, the  Calgary Herald   reports. Meals were instead prepared off-site (sometimes outside the province) often using "flash freezing" techniques. But complaints about  the taste and nutritional value of the food have spurred the Health Minister to order the  Alberta Heath Services to serve home-cooked menu items in all of its 73 long-term care facilities by the end of this year to improve the taste, appearance and variety of food. The Health Minister said r esidents and seniors advocacy groups have "told us clearly that preparing food off-site and reheating it does not meet expectations . . . and we are taking actions to change that".   Alberta Health Services plans to have a strategy by October  for all facilities. The problems are much the same ...

Researchers report that the meals served at three Ontario hospitals are too high in salt. They analyzed 84 standard menus for regular, diabetic and sodium-restricted diets at three hospitals in Ontario between 2010 and 2011. "We demonstrated that hospital patient menus contain excessive levels of sodium," the study's authors concluded. Among the regular menus, 86 per cent exceeded the tolerable upper level of 2,300 milligrams per day, about a teaspoon of salt. "I think the major solutions are just the government setting standards, hospitals implementing those standards and then the food industry certainly lowering sodium levels in the foods that they produce," University of Toronto researcher and dietician Jo-An Arcand told the C BC. The CBC adds that earlier studies of sodium levels in long-term care facilities found those meals may contain up to 4,390 milligrams per day. All of the hospitals studied used rethermalization technologies and m...

An interesting two part series on CBC's National television news program on the problems of processed hospital foods concluded tonight.  The first story discussed the unhealthy and unappetizing aspects of processed hospital food.  Malnourished patients are at higher risk of developing infections, pressure sores, pneumonia and falling, and take longer to recuperate in hospital.  Moreover, hospitals serving highly processed foods sends the wrong message to patients and the public, the story suggests. Tonight's story reports that one large Ontario hospital made progress by cooking fresh food in the hospital's kitchen.  In the past, all food preparation and cooking had been outsourced.  The hospital food managers report they were able to make this change without driving up food costs.  They were also able to reduce the amount of food waste -- which had averaged about 30%. People don't understand why hospitals  should serve unhealthy, proc...

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...

The Star reports that although the the provincial government cut its $24 million commitment  to get more local food into hospitals and other public institutions to $6 million, it is still  still working to get more local food into schools and hospitals. Or at least it is according to the Ministry of Agriculture. "We made a commitment to increasing a footprint in the public sector for local foods," says  Melissa Zanette, press secretary to Agriculture Minister Carol Mitchell.  Local food tastes better and is healthier, she says. And increasing consumption helps Ontario farmers and is more environmentally friendly than trucking it from afar, she adds. Right now only 20 per cent of hospital food originates in Ontario, according to a survey of 33 Ontario hospitals by the group My Sustainable Canada. Other hospitals endeavoring to use more local food include the Scarborough Hospital,  St. Joseph's Health Centre in Guelph, and St. Mike's ...

Here is an account sent to me by an Ontario nurse of her experience with contracted out support services in her hospital.  I've removed the name of the company.  "I just learned that  if something is not mentioned in the (company) contract, the company does not have to do it.   "In our hospital, patients transported from outside the community will have a single escort with them.  There is a hostel that houses and provides meals for escorts.    When we get a sick child usually only one escort comes with them.   The escort stays in the room with the child and we would provide the escort with a meal tray.    "Recently (the company) put a stop to it and said they would only supply trays to escorts of children 1 year old or less.  The other escorts would have to go to the hostel to either eat or get a meal ticket, everyday.  As nurses we could not believe an escort of a 2 year old would be made to leave the hospit...

The Globe and Mail ran a very interesting Saturday cover story on plans to increase fresh, nutritious, local, and hospital cooked food at Scarborough Hospital. It deserves quotation. "People in power have begun to recognize the link between health and good food, and believe it should be heeded in a place that caters to the ailing. Paradoxically, hospital patients are fed some of the nation’s cheapest food – each meal costs less than three dollars per person. Much of it goes into the trash: About 40 per cent of what kitchens dish out is rejected. Administrators everywhere are struggling with this and low patient satisfaction; many admit they would never feed their families the low-budget food their kitchens serve to patients.... "The most tantalizing prospect involves adding fresh or local foods and returning to scratch cooking. Most Canadian hospitals have long since given up the basics, such as distilling soup stock from simmered bones, in favour of convenient powdered ...

The food was so bad, the president of the University of Winnipeg, Lloyd Axworthy, says that  “we were at the very bottom. We were being hung in effigy by students...Even the poutine was bad.” So, t wo years ago, he decided to buy out the contract of its large, multinational catering firm.   In its place, the school established its own arm’s-length culinary company, Diversity Foods, in partnership with the local non-profit SEED Winnipeg .   The Globe and Mail reports that it  was mandated to serve organic, locally grown food of an ethnically diverse variety, and to employ inner-city residents as their primary labour force. The University now has a service that provides much better food. At the same time it has increased revenue for the University.  In fact  the food is so popular that the university’s executive chef is Winnipeg’s most in-demand caterer.   What's more the school’s buying power has persuaded suppliers to finally provide ...

Infection Control Today reports that a new research study (by  Cokes, et al.)  has flagged the importance of surface cleaning in hospital kitchens.     "Because patient groups at high risk for severe outcomes of L. monocytogenes infection comprise a high proportion of hospital patient populations, the absence of guidelines in hospital food service practice is concerning.   We recommend that hospitals implement policies to avoid serving certain foods to patients at risk for listeriosis. ....  In addition, routine and thorough cleaning of food contact surfaces in hospital kitchens is an essential practice to reduce opportunities for cross-contamination of foods with L. monocytogenes, an environmentally persistent pathogen." The study of New York City hospitals was conducted after a listeriosis outbreak occurred in a NYC hospital.  PubMed Health reports that Listeriosis is a dangerous infection caused by eating food contaminated with bacteria c...

While Kingston General Hospital has plowed on with its plan to ship in meals manufactured (and sealed-up) in a distant factory,  other hospitals are starting to make local food in their kitchens.   St. Joseph's Health Centre management in Guelph recently won an award from Ontario's Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation for being committed to high quality local food.   The satisfaction rate with food service at St. Joseph's rocketed to 87 per cent, compared to the provincial average of 60 per cent. The local hospital dietary manager, Leslie Carson, told the Guelph Mercury that the main way she moved the opinion meter on her facility's food was by moving away from ready-prepared food.  Six years ago, when she arrived at St. Joseph's, ready-prepared food was all it served. Very little food was prepared on site. Good or bad, it had no soul. Carson says staff took little pride in serving it. Having had nothing to do with its preparation,...

Hospital bosses in Britain have slashed the amount they spend on food for patients, the  British paper the Daily Mail reports .   The most miserly hospitals pay 3 British pounds a day --  a paltry 1 pound per meal (less than $1.60 Canadian). The average British prison meal costs  2.10 pounds. Figures obtained by the Mirror reveal food budgets at hospitals in England in 2009-10 had been cut by as much as 62% compared with five years previously.   A total of 36 out of 191 hospitals analysed cut spending on food in the five-year period. Twenty hospitals spend less than 5 pounds a day feeding each patient. The spending cuts come despite the cost of ingredients soaring by a third and claims from bosses that their food is   improving. Roger Goss, co-director of Patient Concern, said the   problem   would only get   worse   as hospital budgets are savaged by the Conservative government.  "Hospital food   is a disaster. Each hosp...

A staff member at Peterborough Regional Health Centre found a fingernail in her soup at the hospital's cafeteria. The cafeteria has been taken over by the giant transnational corporation, Compass.  They claim the fingernail came in a package from a supplier (of course) . Compass is also trying to take over food services at Kingston General Hospital, likely shipping in food from the same facility as in Peterborough. Soup anyone? dallan@cupe.ca

Sodexho  reached   a $20 million settlement with the Attorney General of the state of New York in July for overcharging 21 school districts and the state university for food services.  "This company cut sweetheart deals with suppliers and then denied taxpayer-supported schools the benefits," Attorney General Cuomo said in a statement . Now, Congresswoman Rosa DeLaura has asked the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) to begin an investigation by the Officer of the Inspector General and to alert state education and agriculture agencies to the $20 million settlement.  Congresswoman DeLaura states: Attorney General Cuomo's investigation revealed that it is common practice within the food service industry for providers like Sodexo to leverage their size and market dominance to obtain rebates from vendors that supply food products, equipment and supplies without passing those savings onto local school districts - despite federal and state laws and lo...