storbarnsförälder

I used to know someone who worked part time in a hospital kitchen. She said that most of the staff were (a)not terribly skilled (she was a sixth-former with no previous experience), (b)on minimum wage and (c)overworked. Whoever was in charge was working with a shoestring budget, with which he or she was supposed to supply edible, balanced meals for the whole of the (large, non-specialised including A&E and Maternity) hospital - so a practically infinite variety of medical conditions as well as all the different allergies and diets. Sometimes the diet sheets for each ward didn't get to them in time, as each meal would be planned (and budgetted) well in advance, and they didn't really have either the experienced staff or the budget to come up with good alternative food at short notice. And then, once the food had been produced, it had to be taken along miles of corridor, probably by people who were also overworked.

The food was pretty dire.

There are some obvious changes that could be made (like making the ingredients lists more widely available), but what they really needed was a logistics genius who was also a good cook, and I take it they're in rather short supply for NHS wages.