Hospital food is so regularly found to be poor, that any new report saying so causes barely a ripple. Some people joke that patients’ meals have to be bad or they’d never leave – only our current social care deficit and too many people stuck in hospital means this is not at all funny.

So it is indeed a disgrace that a new Department of Health review found that only 54 per cent of hospitals in England are “fully compliant” with nutrition standards set by the British Dietetic Association. These standards include screening patients for malnourishment – yet unlike nutrition standards set for schools which are set in law, these standards are only guidelines.
Another of the guidelines for hospitals states they must ensure that patients have choice and control over what they eat while staying in hospital. I wondered at this. Does it mean a larger menu? Or that someone who is sick should make decisions regarding their own nutrition?