Hospital food will improve

The Health Secretary has told the BBC that the government is working on improving "buying standards" for hospital food given to patients in the NHS.

Andrew Lansley informed the Andrew Marr Show that the government's efforts would mean "better nutrition for patients".

He said that during the time the Labour government was in power from 2001 to 2010, the amount of patients who suffered from malnutrition increased and added: "it shouldn't happen."

A survey, published last year, found that over a tenth of 60,000 health service patients thought hospital food was "poor". 

The Health Secretary told the show: "I accept we need to ensure, and we are increasingly going to ensure, that patients who are in hospital get the right nutrition. To some extent it's personalised, because what you need as a patient in terms of your diet often is very personal."

Mr Lansley said the Department of Health was collaborating with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs "on a range of projects to demonstrate precisely how the buying standards in hospitals can be used in order to deliver better nutrition for patients".

The Sun newspaper is leading a campaign to call for "minimum dietary standards" to be imposed on hospital wards. 

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