Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Meals

While you are in hospital, it's important that you eat enough of the right food to help with your recovery.

Our catering partner, Serco, provides a wide choice of menus, including dietary and religious/cultural menus, so that every diet can be catered for.

We discourage patients from bringing in their own food, and will support individual needs for special diet requirements to provide all inpatients with a suitable meal.

You will be given a menu to choose your meals from in advance daily; please ask the nursing staff to help you make your choices if you are at all unsure.

Special arrangements

Please tell the nursing staff if:

• If you have any difficulties eating or drinking using the crockery and cutlery provided (specialist equipment can be made available as necessary)
• You need assistance at mealtimes
• You have any special dietry requirements
• You wish to see a dietician
• You wish to see a member of the catering staff

Sometimes patients (particularly the elderly) who come into hospital are already malnourished or at risk of further malnourishment.

To reduce this risk we use a 'red jugs' and 'red trays' system, which indicates to staff that a patient might require additional supervision and/or support at mealtimes.

Meal times

These vary throughout the Trust, and some wards have special arrangements (see the individual ward pages for details).

The following is a typical schedule of meal times, but the times are a very general approximation:

• Breakfast: from 7.15am
• Mid-morning drink: 10.15am
• Lunch: from 12.00pm
• Afternoon drink: 2.30pm
• Evening meal: from 5.15pm
• Evening drink: 8.30pm