A regular patient has branded hospital food as “like slop” and said kitchen staff make “zero effort” preparing meals. 

Cystic fibrosis campaigner Jillian McNulty has been in and out of hospitals for years. 

During this time, she has become intimately acquainted with the workings of the health service and said poor food is an almost universal experience. 

“It’s brutal, it’s really, really bad,” she told Lunchtime Live. 

“When someone’s in hospital and they’re sick, you expect to get nutritional, tasty food. 

“When it’s being handed to you on a plate and it looks bland, the veg is undercooked, the chicken or the beef is cold, the potatoes are lumpy, it’s just no. You can’t do it. 

“It’s terrible, there’s absolutely zero effort, in my opinion, when it comes to hospital food.” 

Ms McNulty’s last stay in hospital was in the run up to Christmas and it was, as usual, blighted by low quality food. 

“My breakfast arrived the Saturday before Christmas and it was a boiled egg on toast,” she said. 

“A stone cold egg, cold toast and barely warm tea. How hard is it to get breakfast right for a patient that’s in hospital in the run up to Christmas? 

“It’s very, very poor.” 

That said, the food was unusually tasty after her spinal surgery in September. 

“I was on a soft food diet because I couldn’t eat,” she said. 

“The soft food diet was beautiful. 

“It was all mushed up like baby food but it was really hot and I could eat it, there was a sauce served with it every day. 

“It’s pretty sad that the regular food that goes around for everybody is just basic.” 

Cost and waste are other concerns, with Mc McNulty convinced many of her fellow patients are simply not eating what is put in front of them. 

“Half the time that I’m in there, I just want to march down to the kitchen and hand it to the chefs and say, ‘Would you eat this?’” she said. 

“It’s like slop, it’s absolutely disgraceful and the money that’s wasted every year. 

“I’ve seen the trays going for a walk after lunch and most of the trays are full of food. Nobody can eat it. 

“You’re relying on takeaways.”

According to Our World in Data, food waste is responsible for 6% of global emissions.

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Main image: Woman eating hospital food. Picture by: Alamy.com