Hospital food has been the unfair butt of many a music hall joke for generations.

But now that food science has progressed it looks as though the adage of many a true word being spoken in jest may well be correct in this case.

It is good that Katherine Jones, the diatetics services manager at Airedale NHS Trust, has stated her case to the board and that her comments are being aired in public.

Her presentation was a mixture of national statistics and localised incidents. But the bottom line appears to be that lack of appropriate food slows down recovery, which increases the time a patient spends in the care of the hospital, which in turn costs more money.

Airedale, like other UK hospitals, she says, is guilty of neglecting food in favour of drugs.

The answer is to give food a higher priority and train and educate the vast range of hospital staff who are involved in providing food.

For every person who has complained about hospital food there is another who is full of praise for the culinary delights.

The situation begs the simple financial question - if providing better nutrition will reduce costs and the length of time the patient spends in hospita,l then surely it must be given high priority?

Knowing Airedale it will be - look at its experimental ward hostess scheme.

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