CATERING staff at the Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals have a budget of just £2.40 a day to buy food for each patient, a report has revealed.

But the actual cost of feeding each person is just over £6 when overheads such as staffing costs are taken into account.

National figures vary from £3 to just under £18 per patient per day.

The local figures are contained in a report from trust governors, who set up a scrutiny group to look into patient nutrition and the meal service.

They visited kitchens, wards and spoke to staff before drawing up a series of recommendations.

They found that meals were nutritious, great care was taken with hygiene and there was flexibility for late orders.

But they criticised the system of ordering food in the morning for lunch and supper the following day.

“This is unsatisfactory and leads to patients receiving food they have not ordered or no longer want and excessive waste in some areas as patients have left the ward,” their report to the trust board says.

The report also points out that more than half of patients surveyed said their food was not always hot, especially soups and desserts.

And more than a fifth of those who needed help to eat said they did not receive it.

The scrutiny group called for better education and use of screening for malnutrition, which should dictate whether patients are seen by a dietitian and have their food intake closely monitored.

Fewer than half of patients who should have had a referral did so.

Other recommendations are that ward staff should make sure patients have cleaned their hands before eating, used urine bottles and commodes should be cleared and surfaces cleaned before food service – and a dedicated member of staff should be responsible for serving the food on each ward.

The Royal Bournemouth and Christchurch Hospitals provide fruit juice, cereal, bread and croissants for breakfast at ward level.

The food for lunches and dinners is cooked in the hospitals’ kitchens and served from trolleys on the wards.