Prue Leith, a Great British Bake Off judge is stepping in to fix the NHS food standards.
Posted on August 2019 By Jamie Southwell

It’s time to intervene says Prue Leith, as she is set to advise a review on the healthcare service’s hospital food. The 79 year old catering star is still recovering after snapping her Achilles tendon whilst filming a skit for the hit tv show, but this hasn’t stopped her from being able to chime in on and advocate for the increase of food quality being given the hospital patients whilst in care. This isn’t the first time she has expressed concerns about the NHS food quality, last time stating it should be more appealing and nutritious.
The review labelled as “A root and branch”, was kicked off by the department of Health and Social Care and will aim to determine if we’re able to increase the amount of hospitals catering in-house. This will also be taking into consideration whether we can use less frozen food, source more local products, and if we can adjust the kitchen facilities in order to try attracting more chefs into the NHS.
Our Health Secretary initiated this review earlier in June, after there was an outbreak of listeria due to pre-packaged foods like sandwiches and salads that had been given or sold to patients whilst in care; resulting in the death of 6 people. The review predicts it will be able to examine the quality of 140million meals being provided to NHS staff and patients per year.
Prue went on to further her comments about the current food standards by saying “We’re wasting millions of pounds by binning food in hospitals” and “A hospital meal shouldn’t stagger a patient’s recovery but rather be a highlight to their recovery at the hospital”.
Prue wasn’t alone in thinking this though as the Royal College of Nursing England director, Patricia Marquis also said something similar: “Access to healthy, nutritious food in hospitals is essential for Patients and Staff. You didn’t need a celebrity chef to tell you hospital food needs an overhaul.”
There is a magnitude of people involved in this revamp for the health service food, hopefully it’ll be a quick process and ensure patients are receiving food that speed up their recovery.
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