Meals at Flinders Hospital are ‘atrocious’, patient Amanda Borchardt says

A woman suffering in excruciating pain from a spinal injury has shared some confronting photos of meals she was served during her recent stay in hospital.

Ambulances at the Flinders Medical centre. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

When Amanda Borchardt was admitted to the Flinders Medical Centre ED with a spinal injury, she didn’t expect a five star meal.

She did, however, expect to be served edible, nutritious food while she received treatment.

That isn’t what happened, and after complaining to the hospital’s complaint board with very little action taken, she wants people to see what patients are being served.

A fortnight ago, Ms Borchardt, 45, went to the emergency department at Flinders Medical Centre with severe pain from a spinal injury.

“There were eight ramped ambulances when I arrived, and I was waiting in the ED for 16 hours. When I finally was seen, I was given a bed in a corridor next to the bins,” she told The Advertiser.

Hospital "food" at Flinders – Fish and Pumpkin dinner. Picture: Supplied

More fish for dinner.

“I ended up getting a face infection during my stay at the hospital too, which I was given some pretty heavy antibiotics for. The whole stay seemed like so much drama.

“I was transferred to a different ward where there were so many supply shortages. Nurses had to keep running to other wards just to get basic items.”

Ms Borchardt said that despite all the issues, one of the worst parts of her stay were the meals she and other patients were served every day.

“It was honestly just atrocious,” she said.

“I don’t even think my dog would eat that, let alone a human.”

Most evenings for dinner, she said she was served some kind of bland meat with a slice of pumpkin.

“That first dinner is actually a piece of fish with a slice of pumpkin. Another night there was some kind of circle of beef. I ended up complaining for eight days straight to get someone to listen. People were putting in requests and not getting what they were asking for, it was just horrible.

“Some patients had family members who would just bring in meals for them, but all of my family is in Murray Bridge so they couldn’t just pop down and bring me dinner.”

She said that while the food was hell to deal with, she ended up snacking on crackers and cheese just to get by.

“I finally got a dietitian involved, but even then nothing was being done for other people.

Hospital "food" at Flinders Beef and Pumpkin

Amanda Borchardt spent two weeks in hospital.

“We keep seeing the government spending millions on sport events, what about investing in the health care system?

“I can’t fault the nurses, they were excellent and they’re pretty much working with nothing. “They were great. But the hospital needs to fix their food issues.”

In a statement, a spokesperson from the Southern Adelaide Local Health Network apologised to Ms Borchardt for the experience and not meeting her food needs.

“Food plays an important role in a patient’s health and wellbeing, and for this reason food is prepared on site, and patients have a choice of meals each day to suit their dietary requirements and medical needs,” the spokesperson said.

“If a patient has concerns or requires extra assistance we have members of the dietician team available to discuss their options with a patient and assist with ordering.”

She said once a complaint was made, the hospital staff and dieticians worked with Ms Borchardt to ensure an improvement was made.

“ FMC is subject to both internal and external regular food safety and quality audits and we will work with our kitchen staff to ensure all meals sent to our patients meet our high standards.”