The hospital chefs are just given ingredients and they have to make the food. They are not always able to do that

Samantha Pollitt

But nurses at Blackburn, Hyndburn and Ribble Valley Health Care Trust in Lancashire say the menus are not working and are even worse than before.

They claim hospital chefs are struggling to create some of the more complicated dishes.

Nurse research fellow Samantha Pollitt, from the University of Central Lancashire in Preston, told the Royal College of Nursing's European nursing older people conference in York: "The food at Blackburn has been described as slop.

"So far the nurses' opinion is that the menu isn't working. In our opinion it is worse.

"The hospital chefs are just given ingredients and they have to make the food. They are not always able to do that."

Widespread consultation

A Department of Health spokesperson said: "Patient's views are crucial to the NHS.

"In fact the new NHS Food menu is the outcome of widespread consultation with NHS patients.

"Patient representatives from many organisations, including the NHS Patients Food Group, have helped test and develop the new NHS menus.

"Patients have told us that they like freshness and want us to put the taste back into NHS food, this is what we are doing with the new NHS menus.

"We have also set up the Better Hospital Food Panel which includes nurses, patients the British Dietetic Association and the Hospital Caterers Association.

"The Panel will take forward our long term programme for improving hospital food so that food menu standards continue to improve year after year."

Among the new dishes are roast cod with garlic potato puree and leek and mushroom sauce, braised chicken thighs with lentils, cauliflower and very cheesy sauce and navarin of lamb with couscous and grilled vegetables.

At least one of the new dishes is now available in all UK hospitals with all the menus set to replace current hospital fare by 2002.

A report commissioned by the NHS last year found that up to 40% of patients were malnourished in hospital and an estimated �45m worth of hospital food was thrown away every year.

At the time of the launch Shadow Health Secretary Dr Liam Fox accused the government of staging an "election stunt".

He said: "How fitting that a government which specialises in cooking the books should mark the end of its term with a cookbook."