Anger as 20,000 meals thrown out by Southern Trust
HOSPITALS in the Southern Trust area threw out almost 20,000 untouched patient meals last year, new figures have revealed.
Documents released by the Trust reveal how 55 meals were wasted on average every day, costing the Trust tens of thousands of pounds.
The figures were disclosed to this newspaper after a Freedom of Information request and follow reports in recent months that health trusts are facing increased financial pressure.
In the last three financial years some 85,893 meals at hospitals in the Southern area went unused, including 19,436 during 2007/08.
And while it constitutes a small fraction of the 2,959,221 meals served in that period, the Trust were still left facing an 82,267 bill for meals which were either untouched or never served.
A spokesman for the Trust said it was "inevitable" that some meals would go unused and said it was committed to reducing food wastage at local hospitals.
However Fermanagh/South Tyrone MLA Mauirce Morrow said it was "outrageous" that so many meals had been discarded.
"It may be a small percentage but it is still unacceptable that 20,000 meals were thrown out last year," he said. "Surely this is a waste of taxpayers' money which could be used for frontline services.
"The Trusts need to look again at how they are running kitchens and put in place measures to ensure greater efficiency because to simply throw out thousands of meals is outrageous.
"That money could have been used to pay for additional beds or operations. It could and should have been put to better use."
A spokesperson for the Southern Trust said it provided around one million meals every year to patients in hospital - around 2,700 meals each day.
Read the full story in this week's issue of the TYRONE TIMES - the UK's fastest growing weekly newspaper
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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