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Nil by mouth - unless it’s hospital food only

Kirsty Elleray
27/ 2/2008

FOR most people the thought of eating hospital food for two weeks is not pleasant.

But for Craig Bradford, the catering manager at Stepping Hill Hospital, it is a challenge to prove the food patients are served is nutritional, tasty and varied.

Starting today for two weeks Craig will be eating nothing but patient food, he will have three meals a day, with the option of having a snack box.

He will not be able to consume alcohol, only beverages the patients would be provided with.

Craig (pictured right) will be eating at the same time as the patients and will have a weigh in at the beginning of the challenge, the middle and the end of the two weeks.

The 45-year-old said: "I am starting with a breakfast today, which will be cereal. And I have been planning my meals for the two weeks, eating something different each day.

"I thought of doing this after an article was published in the British Medical Journal saying one in five patients leaving hospital are malnourished. I want to prove our menu is varied, nutritional, balanced, tasty and of a high quality.

"It is a test to give my views on the menu and we will make changes if I feel there is something missing. I will also be keeping a diary, to see if I get hunger pangs and so on.

"There will be no beer for me – so I may loose weight! I have every confidence in the menu, I will be spending a lot of time in the hospital to eat, but at least I won’t have to cook!"

Ian Whidlof, director of facilities at the hospital in Hazel Grove, added: "The food at Stepping Hill has a good reputation for food and in a national patient survey we came in the top 20 percent in the country for food providers. We offer a complete and varied menu and are very confident in the service for patients. The chief executive, Chris Burke, thinks it is a wonderful idea, and he also loves the food."

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