Sir – You have rightly given considerable coverage in your columns of the proposed closure of kitchens in local hospitals, and to the campaign by Alex Meredith and others to reverse this.
Sustainable Wallingford and South Oxfordshire Sustainability, which represents community action groups across the county, have for years been working to promote local food.
We strongly endorse the Campaign for Better Hospital Food. Serving appetising, healthy and fresh food should be normal practice in hospitals, and many are doing just that with measurable success, without increasing costs, according to the Soil Association’s First Aid for Hospital Food Report.
It is widely recognised that nutritious food is integral to good health. It is vital to make sure that hospital patients in south Oxfordshire have the best possible food, prepared using fresh ingredients in the hospitals’ kitchens.
If it can be done in Cornwall, London, Nottingham and Sussex, then why not Oxfordshire too? We urge the Oxfordshire Health NHS Foundation Trust to reconsider.
The trust claims that closing the hospital kitchens in Wantage, Witney, Didcot and Wallingford would save £300,000. This is equivalent to 45p per person living in the county.
To raise awareness of this situation the Campaign for Better Hospital Food is asking people to send a cheque for 45p made payable to Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust to Alex Jackson, Campaign for Better Hospital Food, Development House, 56-64 Leonard St, London EC2A 4LT.
Jean Semlyen
Sustainable Wallingford and SOS Food Groups
Church Lane
Wallingford
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