Press Release –Grey Power

Press Release –Grey Power

Grey Power has sounded a warning that the planned outsourcing of hospital food services could put vulnerable elderly people at risk of food poisoning or malnutrition.

Two years ago the Government announced plans to contract UK based catering company Compass to provide the estimated eight million meals required for in patients and the Meals on Wheels a year service from two central hubs in Auckland and Christchurch.

Grey Power Federation vice president Tom O’Connor said, while the objective of the proposed 15 year contract appeared to be a significant saving in catering costs, there were potentially unacceptable risks to patients, particularly elderly people who were reliant on the Meals on Wheels service.

The mass-produced, pre-cooked food will be frozen, delivered to hospitals around New Zealand, reheated and served to patients but Mr O’Connor said, while hospital patients were under constant supervision by medical professionals, people living alone and receiving Meals on Wheels may not know how to manage pre-frozen and re-heated food.

“We know that many people on the Meals on Wheels service put their delivered meals aside and reheat them later in the evening when they feel hungry. With locally produced meals that probably does not pose a risk but our expert advisers tell us there are hygiene risks in doing that several times which people may not be aware of.”

There was also the issue of food quality and the special diets of many patients which Mr O’Connor said appeared to have been overlooked or ignored.

“We don’t expect five star catering when we spend time in hospital but reports from hospital staff where Compass is already doing the catering suggest things are not as good as they should be. Some North Island hospital kitchen staff claim some of the meals include tasteless fish from Vietnam and imported, processed potato from the Netherlands. How nutritious food would be after it has been shipped half way around the world, pre-cooked, frozen, then reheated and served up weeks later is anyone’s guess.”

He said there were also issues of reliability in times of natural disaster and civil emergency which seem to not have been given adequate consideration and the issue of the volunteers who currently deliver Meals of Wheels.

“We don’t know what new arrangements will be made for deliveries or if they will have to be paid for under the new system. We do know that all civil emergency training emphasises the need for communities to be self-reliant for at least the first four of five days after a natural disaster. If the trucks can’t get through to remote outlying areas and there is no available air service we can’t feed hospital patients and Meals on Wheels recipients on Marmite sandwiches for a week while the local hospital kitchen sits idle.”

Mr O’Connor said the proposed system had been trialled in Northland, Taranaki, Rotorua, and Southland in 1993.

“That only lasted three years before the contracting company collapsed and the closed hospital kitchens in those areas had to be recommissioned. We know the Government is introducing systems to improve efficiency and save money but we can’t stand by and see elderly and vulnerable patient put at risk in the process,” he said.

ENDS

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