150,000 meals binned

ALMOST 150,000 hospital meals ended up in the bin, it has been revealed.

Last year (2007-08), Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which includes the Royal Oldham Hospital, prepared 1,956,133 meals for patients.

But 7.66 per cent or 149,808 were thrown away, according to figures from the House of Commons library, which provides research and analysis for MPs.

During the previous year (2006-07), 9.46 per cent of the 1,951,864 meals for the Trust were wasted. Nationally in 2007-08, a total of 8.2 per cent of all meals were thrown away.

Middlesbrough Primary Care Trust was the worst, having to bin 43 per cent of its meals.

A spokesman for Pennine Acute Trust, which runs three other hospitals in Rochdale, Bury and North Manchester, said: “Our staff work very hard to make sure food is not wasted and this can be seen in the reduction from the previous year. There are a number of reasons why food has to be discarded, it could be that a patient is too ill to eat or a patient might have been discharged.

“Discarding unused food obviously has a heavy financial impact on the Trust, so we work hard to monitor and record the waste every week to ensure it is kept to a minimum.”

A Department for Health spokesman said the national percentage of untouched or unserved meals had been steadily falling.