A HARLEY Street consultant has slammed the NHS for serving his father “junk” food after a major operation.
Dr Aseem Malhotra raged on social media about a local hospital providing his father with a “ultra-processed junk” sandwich to help with his recovery after an operation on his sinuses.
Dr Chand, from Tameside, Greater Manchester, while recovering in the Ear, Nose and Throat department of Manchester Royal Infirmary Hospital, Greater Manchester.
His Edinburgh University-educated son shared a picture on Facebook of the shocking sandwich his father was provided after the serious operation on Monday.
He captioned it with: “My dad’s just had a major operation (all ok) and this is the food he has been given to eat after regaining consciousness.
“Why are patients still being served such disgraceful ultra – processed ‘food’? When will the medical system acknowledge that nutritious food is essential to good recovery?”
The image shows a picture of an egg mayonnaise sandwich on white bread wrapped in plastic film. The sandwich has on the top left corner Vitale created to care.
It then has in the top right hand corner this pack contains stating it has 19.5 grams of fat, 3 grams of saturated fat, 3 grams of sugar and one gram of salt.The sandwich has been neatly sliced into four triangles of bread with large dollop of butter on the outside one of the slices of bread. The product has a use-by date for Monday.
Dr Malhotra, the best selling author of the Pioppi Diet that focuses on eating plenty of vegetables, nuts, fish and legumes while discouraging red meat, starchy carbs and sweet treats, later took to Twitter.
He captioned the post: “Ultra-processed junk that my dad was given in hospital ward post op
“Why are patients still served such disgraceful meals when nutritious food is essential to good recovery?
“If we really want to fix healthcare we need to fix the food @MattHancock”.
Sarah Adams reacted to the post writing: “It’s all about money. Nutrition doesn’t come into it. And let’s remember that a significant part of the population would think this was nutritious because it’s the same crap as they’d eat at home”.
Donella Felton said: “Because it’s cheap and the NHS can feed more patients with this rubbish sadly”.
Jill Gardner Eeeek added: “It’s more beige than a beige dead thing”.
@NorthForBritain wrote: “Bread has barely any nutrition other than calories. It has to have vitamins added to it because it’s so poor nutritionally. Stay away from bread if you’re trying to recover”.
Dr Jagan John, a cardiologist, said: “I agree with you Dr Malhotra – we should have a national patient charter for food quality in hospitals.
“When patients are in their most vulnerable state we should encourage -good quality food as it aids their recovery. And reduces bed days -many of my patients don’t eat in the hospital”.
Dr Malhotra’s father is an honorary vice president of the British Medical Association and is the ex-chair of Tameside and Glossop NHS.
Dr Chand responded to his son’s post but decided not to join in the criticism and instead paid tribute to the NHS.
He wrote: “I am deeply grateful for the exceptional care I received from colleagues and NHS staff for my sinuses operation. This is the NHS at its best.I am also immeasurably grateful to my Facebook friends and family for good wishes and solidarity.”
In 2017 it was revealed that prisoners are fed better than sick hospital patients
Hospitals spend just £1.37 per meal for each patient – meanwhile the Prison Services spend £2.02 on feeding convicts.
