My Thought

You should see patients’food in public hospitals

Those who have had a chance to walk into any public hospital during meal times may relate with what I am about to say concerning the type of food that is served to patients in government hospitals.
The many times I have bumped into patients or guardians carrying plates of food prepared by chefs or cooks in public hospitals’ kitchens, I have been left speechless at the kind of food that the hospitals prepare for admitted patients.
One guardian I met in one of the hospitals carried a plate of mgaiwa nsima. The relish was boiled cabbage without a trace of tomato in it. The colours of the nsima and cabbage were almost similar that it took me a bit of time to notice that there were two kinds of food in the plate.
There was nothing appetising about the food. Even in my healthy and hungry state that afternoon, I would not have wanted to taste the food.
I wondered who that plate was for, the state they were in and if they would, given their illness and the loss of appetite that usually comes with ill health at times, eat that food.
While walking in the corridors again one evening, I saw another plate in the hands of an elderly woman—I couldn’t place her as a guardian or patient—but in their plate was mgaiwa nsima again and what looked like green vegetables, most likely Chinese.
The overcooked vegetables were discoloured and the amount very small when compared to the lump of nsima they were supposed to go with. Yet again, there was nothing mouth-watering about the food and I wondered if she or the patient it was meant for would take pleasure in the food , or gain any food nutrients from it.
One other evening I saw something different in the plates; mgaiwa nsima with a small piece of meat floating in a river of soup. The nsima portion did not match the relish at all. This meal would certainly taste better than the two others mentioned above, but still in my healthy state, I could not even begin to salivate for the food.
I haven’t had the chance to see what breakfast looks like, but I can only guess that it is mgaiwa porridge with little or no sugar at all.
While I appreciate that government hospitals run on shoe-string budgets, I think there ought to be a way of ensuring that patients eat what can be cheap food, but prepared in a way that is appetizing with the necessary nutrients patients desperately need in their sick state.

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One Comment

  1. its just very sad what these people feed our sick brothers and sisters.its just wicked.yet again i understand that the food given to the members of staff that is the doctors,nurses etc
    is cooked from the same pots……only better

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