''To me, it's just ridiculous,'' Grey Power Otago president Jo Millar told the SDHB commissioner team during the public forum of their meeting in Dunedin this week.
The Compass Group has confirmed it might consider air-freighting SDHB meals in future due to the partial closure of State Highway 1 after the earthquake in North Canterbury last week.
At the moment, it is using rail, the Lewis Pass, and shipping, and it is going well, the company said last week.
Mrs Millar said there was a ''perfectly good'' kitchen in Dunedin.
''Get the kitchen open up again - fully, not partially.''
Mrs Millar said the Dunedin kitchen cooked the vegetables for inpatient meals, but most of its work involved reheating.
Commissioner Kathy Grant told Mrs Millar there was a ''bigger picture'' to consider than ''simply this DHB''.
Mrs Grant said the SDHB did not have an individual contract with Compass. The arrangement included the five other DHBs that signed up to the controversial 15-year deal.
Mrs Grant said meals were getting through after the State Highway 1 partial closure, and there were no issues.
Mrs Millar also raised concerns from her members about the way some are being spoken to by SDHB doctors.
Some felt ''denigrated'' by being bluntly told they did not qualify for services or procedures.
''There has to be a better way of telling people that they don't meet the criteria.
''These are things that people feel very hurt about,'' Mrs Millar said.
Responding, Mrs Grant said she was disappointed to hear the feedback, as the DHB had worked hard on that issue with staff.
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Sorry, I don't support reopening the Dunedin kitchen short term.
Just imagine the demoralising effect on long term patients: frozen mush today, good food for a few days or weeks and then back to frozen mush. We need to cheer up hospital patients, not raise then lower their hopes.
15 year contracts like this that go against common sense should be outlawed from forcing future govts. to have to adhere to. The very idea of doing away with the fresh food prepared on site for sick and injured people or truck/flying in frozen food is so wrong for many reasons, like patients' health and comfort while going through a very stressful time, for such a possible small savings over decades reeks of backroom deals or some sort of political pressure. The bottom line is now there is a middle man collecting money in the food to patients area that makes no health sense and no real financial sense either. They say if everybody had agreed to take reheated frozen tv dinners then they may have saved .005% of their budget, well then where is the out clause where not enough signatures contract falls apart not " we have to put up prices now, sorry".
Dunedin hospital kitchen should be re-instated. It was functioning well and produced good, tasty food appropriate for the patients. Not so Compass. Transportation problems were anticipated and earthquakes are not an unknown occurrence. Cook food local with local food in future.