Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Observations From the Heart

It’s time to ban junk food on hospital premises

BMJ 2013; 346 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.f3932 (Published 26 June 2013) Cite this as: BMJ 2013;346:f3932

Rapid Response:

Re: It’s time to ban junk food on hospital premises

It frustrates me every day to see my hospital canteen full of so much junk food. To be fair there are two soup and sandwich counters (ready-made of course), but pies, chips, pastry or some sort of grease filled curry or lasagne appear in some way or other without fail every single day. It horrifies me seeing parents and their children having fish and chips, mash potato and gravy with chocolate for desert. The overweight staff members that eat chips and pies set a poor example too, it's the same as seeing doctors or nurses smoking in the hospital grounds. We should be setting an example with hospital food in canteens as well as on the wards. In my primary school (over ten years ago) we were only allowed chips and turkey twizzlers on a friday, why isn't this the case for hospital canteens?

Competing interests: No competing interests

08 July 2013
Daniel R Gibney
Medical Student
University of Manchester
Royal Preston Hospital