Hospitals told to ensure staff can access healthy hot and cold food 24 hours a day

NHS trusts will have to ensure that their staff can access healthy hot and cold food 24 hours a day under new food standards published by NHS England.1

The standards follow a year long grass roots campaign (#NoHungryNHSStaff), led by Neely Mozawala, a community specialist diabetes podiatrist based in Somerset who founded the campaign, and Saliha Mahmood Ahmed, a gastroenterologist and winner of BBC One's Masterchef 2017, to make healthy and affordable food available to NHS staff working nights and weekends.2

In 2014 an independent report commissioned by the Department of Health led to legally binding standards on the nutritional quality of the food served to staff and patients in hospitals, but there was no requirement for this food to be available 24 hours a day.3

A survey of members by the Medical and Dental Defence Union of Scotland (MDDUS), press released last week, found that 32% of doctors aged between 25 and 34 are rarely or never able to buy nutritious meals or snacks during working hours. Of the 850 UK junior doctors questioned, 77% said that they had experienced burnout at work, with 39% citing lack of access to good food at work as a key contributing factor. Half of the respondents (51%) said that they had felt fatigued owing to a lack of access to nutritious food, two thirds were concerned that patient safety was at risk when they worked when tired, and 16% said that they were considering leaving the profession owing to a lack of access to nutritious food.

Under NHS England’s eight new food standards, trusts will have to consider the needs of shift workers, who report poorer health and higher incidences of chronic illnesses (such as diabetes) than non-shift workers. Although overnight restaurants are “ideal,” the document said, “different solutions work for different hospitals, and trusts should be responsive to what their staff want.” Sometimes staff might be unable to take a break for a meal, but they need to be able to access healthy, balanced, hot and cold food, it added, which could be made available through a variety of solutions, including smart fridges and retail outlets.

As well as increasing the availability of healthier food for their staff, NHS organisations should “consider subsidising the cost,” the standards say. The rising cost of living has seen more and more low paid NHS staff struggling to feed themselves and their families, prompting a quarter of hospitals to set up food banks.4

Trusts will be held accountable for the food that they provide to staff and patients under the new standards. In the foreword to the document, Simon Corben, director and head of profession, NHS Estates NHS England, said, “Chief executives are ultimately responsible for ensuring that patients have a positive experience during their stay and that their workforce can access healthy, nutritious, and sustainable food and drink in the workplace.

“As an indication of how seriously we take nutrition and healthcare food, these standards will form part of the legally binding standards in the NHS Standard Contract as well as already being part of the NHS Long Term Plan.”