Dozens of NHS hospitals are failing to meet the highest standards of food hygiene.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA), which regularly inspects hospitals and other food suppliers, ranks food hygiene fifth. An NHS assessment shows that all hospitals should aim to achieve this score.
However, as of 2022, there are 35 hospitals ranked below five stars.
This includes Colchester Hospital in Essex and William Harvey Hospital in Kent, which received just two stars, meaning ‘some improvement’ is needed.
Six other locations were awarded three stars, indicating that their hygiene standards are ‘generally satisfactory’.
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The HSJwhich published the data said Colchester Hospital’s two-star ranking last year was based on issues with cleaning standards and hygienic food handling.
East Suffolk and North East Essex Foundation Trust, which manages the site, told the news site that they have taken immediate action to address the problems.
William Harvey Hospital received the score in October. East Kent Hospitals University Foundation Trust said it has since implemented new cleaning measures.
Other sites that scored less than five stars reported that they have improved or are in the process of improving their services since their inspection, such as additional training.
The hospitals awarded three stars include Warrington Hospital, St Albans City Hospital and St Martins Hospital in Kent.
Some smaller locations, such as individual hospital departments or units, achieved even lower scores, the data shows.
A service from facilities management company Mitie in the Woodbury Unit of Whipps Cross Hospital was awarded zero stars, indicating an urgent need for improvement.
North East London Foundation Trust told the HSJ it has immediately closed the area while it resolves the issues.
A 2020 review of NHS hospital food, led by Bake Off judge Prue Leith, states that all hospitals should ‘aim for five stars’ for food hygiene and maintain a minimum of four stars.
The hospital in Cambridgeshire also offered a plate of broccoli and cauliflower in cheese sauce for dinner on another occasion. ‘I have had numerous stays over the years where the food has been terrible,’ the patient told MailOnline. ‘The amount of food on the menu that is regularly unavailable is ridiculous’
Another patient was served a rotten jacket potato while undergoing treatment for appendicitis at a North Yorkshire hospital in December 2020. Sally Teston said the potato was ‘black inside’. The staff couldn’t replace it “until everyone else got their food and I had to wait for what was left,” she added. While Covid restrictions remained in place during her hospital stay, ‘I had to get my mother to deliver meals to the hospital doors and I went out to pick her up as I was not allowed to have visitors ‘, she said.
According to the FSA figures, around 190 acute sites and hundreds of mental health or community facilities had a five-star ranking.
The FSA Food Hygiene Rating System ranks food suppliers from zero to five. The score is displayed on site and online to help people make informed choices.
The agency notes that its assessment is only a snapshot of food standards at the time of its visit and that businesses must follow food hygiene rules at all times.
Food hygiene scores are not a measure of food quality, customer service or presentation in restaurants, takeaways, schools or hospitals, it adds.
Britons have separately complained about the quality of NHS food for years.
Many have shared photos of the ‘unappetizing’ and ‘inedible’ meals they were given in hospital, including a plate of broccoli and cauliflower in cheese for dinner and a rotten jacket potato.
In November 2022, NHS England launched national hospital food standards, which are legally binding.
The eight standards include a requirement for trusts to offer hot food 24/7 and let patients choose their dinner from bed.
More vegetable and fish dishes should also be made available.
It came in the wake of Dame Prue’s blueprint for better hospital food calling on the NHS to make healthier, better quality meals.
She also said that by 2022 all hospitals should have digital meal ordering, serve meals on porcelain and ‘go green’ to reduce the 14 million kg of wasted meals the NHS throws away every year.
The review was commissioned by former Prime Minister Boris Johnson in August 2019 after six patients died from listeria, which they contracted from hospital sandwiches and salads.