Hospitals' daily spending on food as little as £4.15 per patient

Hospitals' daily spending on food as little as £4.15 per patient Lowest spender is Barnet and Chase Farm at £4.15 per patient per day, and highest is King's College hospital at £15.69.

Some hospitals spend barely £4 a day on the food they give each patient, less than half the national average, according to official NHS figures.

At £4.15 a head, Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals NHS trust in north London spends the least of any hospital trust in England on feeding its inpatients. The average cost of giving a patient a decent breakfast, lunch and evening meal every day has risen by £1.10 from £8.77 to £9.87, according to the Department of Health.

Data collected by the NHS's Health and Social Care Information Centre showed some trusts spend almost four times as much as the north London trust. King's College Hospital NHS Foundation trust in south London spent the most at £15.69. Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation trust, best-known for the scandal involving poor care in 2005-09, managed £15.22 per patient.

Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said the huge disparity between low and high spenders could not be justified.

"The logical assumption to make is that the quality of food in those hospitals spending less must be inferior. This is deeply concerning when you consider the obvious impact that good-quality, nutritious food can have on the wellbeing of patients", she said. The NHS should consider introducing a minimum sum per head for patients' food, Murphy added.

The health department said it was "crucial that patients receive tasty, nutritious food as part of their care. Although the NHS is spending more on patient meals, there is still too much variation across the country". But patient-led hospital inspections were helping to drive up standards and reduce variation in the provision of food, she added.

Other trusts spending noticeably small amounts included the Liverpool Heart and Chest NHS Foundation trust (£4.65), Ealing Hospital NHS trust in west London (£4.65) and the South London and the Maudsley mental health foundation trust in south London (£4.37).

The Campaign for Better Hospital Food urged the NHS to bring in mandatory standards for patients' food to end the "postcode lottery" in quality.

"A survey of patients by the Care Quality Commission this year showed that there is no relationship between the amount of money spent on hospital food and its popularity with patients", said Alex Jackson, its co-ordinator.

"The best patient meals are often those that are freshly cooked in a hospital's own kitchen. Patient meals cooked in this way are often also the cheapest to make, because they give hospital cooks the option to find the best deals from local suppliers."

Unison, which represents 400,000 NHS staff, said every hospital should have its own kitchen so it does not have to bring in and then reheat pre-prepared food. The Guardian