Gosford Hospital food: ‘Inedible’ meal served to 5-year-old leukaemia patient
A very sick child in hospital was stressful enough for this Central Coast mum, but the meals served up to her five-year-old left her furious. Would you eat this?
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Plastic looking, watery scrambled eggs, raw potato wedges and pea and tofu curry were served to a child on the paediatric ward at Gosford Hospital.
The quality of food hitting the hospital tray table has prompted a Bateau Bay mum to speak out.
Mahala Rae has been taking her five-year-old son Louis to Gosford Hospital over the past few months for treatment after he was diagnosed with Lymphoblastic Lymphoma.
“Ever since we have been going to Gosford Hospital, the food has been that bad and even staff acknowledge how bad it is,” Ms Rae said.
“I’ve had to start packing my own food, it’s just inedible.”
The food service at the hospital is contracted to a company called HealthShare NSW which will contact the family to apologise.
“HealthShare NSW wishes to apologise to the patient their family for the meal they received, which does not reflect the high standards that HealthShare NSW Food Services is committed to delivering for all patients,” the spokeswoman said.
“We are investigating how this occurred.
“We will work with them and a dietician to provide choices that are suitable for the patient.
Our Food Production teams based throughout NSW regularly survey our customers to gauge the quality of our food services.
“We review all complaints and where possible proactively adjust the services provided at the facility. We will work with dieticians to review the quality of food at Gosford Hospital.
“HealthShare NSW has received three complaints about the quality of food at Gosford Hospital this year.”
The recent visit to Gosford Hospital saw Louis served “questionable” scrambled eggs.
“There was no way I was going to let him touch those eggs, I actually said to the lady that I didn’t think they were real eggs,” Ms Rae said.
“There was a fish and chips meal and the potato wedges were soggy and raw in the middle. “Do people just go expecting the food to be that bad? There’s bad and then there’s really bad.”
She said Louis was admitted to the hospital in the evening and woke the next morning hungry but all that arrived was a single piece of bread.
“One day we tried ordering a simple cheese sandwich for lunch and ended up getting a horrible looking tuna bake,” she said.
“Children aren’t going to eat a lot of those meals anyway, let alone when they come out looking like that.”
During their stay, Louis also received a frozen meal of curried peas and tofu.
“We are heading to Westmead hospital this week and we don’t need to take a thing with us. The food is really good,” Ms Rae said.
She said she didn’t lodge an official complaint, but instead decided to share it with local politicians and invite them to share the scrambled eggs for breakfast.
The HealthShare NSW spokeswoman said Gosford Hospital Food Services offered omelettes and scrambled eggs at breakfast time.
“The suppliers of both these products use fresh eggs in their production,” she said.
The Food Service model used at Gosford Hospital is prepared offsite by a mix of both HealthShare operated Food Production Units and third party suppliers.
“HealthShare NSW works closely with dietitians and other clinicians to provide as much choice as possible for approximately 65,000 meals that are served each day to patients in our public hospitals.
“Again, our sincere apologies to the patient and family concerned that our efforts fell well short of expectations on this occasion.”
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