Hospital meals were an awful culinary hell
I had the misfortune to spend all of July and the majority of August 2022 in Ward 7 of Dunedin Public Hospital, and in my experience the food was truly awful.
I lost 18kg of weight and my condition on discharge was not great, resulting in readmission twice for a week each time in the next three weeks. Without food parcels from home I doubt that I would have survived. In contrast to the medical staff who are absolutely brilliant, the caterers brushed off requests to speak to those in charge of catering.
Food was stodgy institutional fare of the worst kind, unappealing and unattractive, at various times cold and barely fit for human consumption. I found the lack of fresh food appalling and God only knows what they do to the meat and vegetables. I calculate that I had about 147 meals and was offered a total of two salads.
I suggest if you should find yourself trapped in this culinary hell on earth that you avoid any pasta (sets like concrete), stews and casseroles (taste like they look), fish (doesn’t travel at all well.) Fresh fruit and vegetable finger food from home is a must.
After one surgery by a crack team of clinicians I was presented as a reward by my greatest fear in life a dead smoked fish with whatever they do to potatoes before reconstituting it for the compost.
The horrified staff tried to summon the kitchen but gave up when again family came to the rescue and I was lucky enough to escape home the next day.
I have spent a bit of time in hospital over the last few years and the food is defiantly of lesser quality under the new regime.
How management thought that contracting an overseas company interested in returning maximum dividend to their shareholders would give good value to the sick patients of Dunedin Hospital is simply unbelievable.
A Te Whatu Ora Southern spokesperson replies. As a large organisation with many patients to cater for, we are committed to providing nutritious and appetising food options for all patients while in hospital. We understand that our hospital provided meals are not the same as what you may have at home.
The food service produced approximately 70,000 meals for Dunedin Hospital patients in the first three months of this year. Patient satisfaction surveys undertaken monthly show a patient satisfaction rate of over 90% each month. Te Whatu Ora Southern is appreciative of feedback and we are committed to continuously improving the services which we provide to our community.
The way we were
An item in the 100 Years Ago column (ODT, 6.5.23) reported on four 11-13 year old schoolboys who were charged in the Juvenile Court for interfering with the telephone system by extracting pennies from the slot machine at a bureau in Musselburgh by using chewing gum and flax.
It mentioned that the parents of the boys before the court were highly respectable and the boys had good homes.
It then went on to say that some of the parents of the boys had already thrashed them, and the others had undertaken to do the same.
How times have changed.
The air we breathe
Hilary Calvert seems to believe that everything has a ‘price’ and nothing is ‘free’ (ODT 11.5.23), someone must be paying for the oxygen she breathes.
Hudson Park photograph tugs at the heartstrings
What a beautiful photo and story about two awesome kids (ODT 11.5.23): Scarlette for her bravery and Josh for his wonderful support and friendship. You are both heros. The smile on Scarlette’s face not only lit up the front of the ODT but warmed the heart.
How incredibly heartwarming the photo on today’s front page.
Joshua you are a little hero and I send you and Scarlette big hugs.
Thanks for putting something like this on the front page .
Coronation day spectacle not a turn-on for all
Anna Campbell’s article "Time to become a republic" (ODT 10.5.23) was timely, insightful and very relevant.
I was born in the UK, as a child of the ’60s going to the movies back then entailed a playing of God Save the Queen before the movie started. No one under 50 stood and sang. The royalty were "just there" — they had no relevance or purpose to the average person.
I don't have a TV but wouldn't have watched the $200 million coronation spectacle anyway. I was surprised at how much there was in the printed and online media here of the event.
Why do we still pay lip service to a now non-relevant institution that was based on the conquering and despoiling of countless countries and their indigenous populations?
New Zealand is recognised worldwide as one of the best in most every facet of life. We don't need approval or condescending rhetoric from the UK to verify that: we can stand on our own two feet.
We can now separate ourselves from the UK and its monarchy without fear of trade or similar repercussions.
As for the "orders of merit" et al that are bestowed on New Zealanders by the monarchy, to me receiving the same acknowledgements from a local source would mean so much more
Thank you, Anna Campbell for your mature reflections on the monarchy and the need for constitutional change.
On the day of King Charles’ coronation I did not partake in the celebrations but wore a brooch of a Monarch butterfly.
New Zealand needs to move on, to ditch the dressing up, and to sever those ceremonial ties to the other side of the world.
The time to have an elected head of state is long overdue, and we need to talk about this, and do something about it.
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