ARmy Rumour SErvice

BBC News - NHS 'paid £17 for gluten-free pizza base'

Two prescription gluten-free pizza bases can cost the NHS as much as £34, BBC Newsnight has learned.

The NHS spent £27m on gluten-free prescriptions in 2011, but handling and delivery charges, which can quadruple the cost, are not recorded.

In an example from Rotherham, it was discovered that the NHS had been paying four times the original price for pizza bases.

The two pizza bases originally cost £8.95. But by the time manufacturing, handling and delivery fees were added on, the bill for the NHS had been driven up to nearly £34.00.

Another example comes from Dr Fayyaz Choudri, a GP who was responsible for overhauling gluten-free prescriptions in Allerdale, Cumbria.

"We saw there were occasions where there was a bread loaf costing £2.50 and there was a handling fee of £32.00," he says.

This is what you get when public servants are in charge of the purse strings. No concept of value for money because someone else is paying.

Originally Posted by bigbird67

Cooks?? In hospitals?? Don't be silly...most of the hospitals I've worked in have 'cook/chill' arrangements where the food is ready made, just heated up on site. Our kitchens were ripped out to make office space. All they have now is a big bank of fridges and plug in heater cabinets!

If people can't eat gluten...why feed them bloody PIZZA??? Give them a jacket potato with tuna and sweetcorn, or meat and 3 veg.....no wonder obesity is an issue when bloody hospitals are serving junk food! And before you tell me pizza isn't junk food, trust me when I tell you hospital pizza makes Iceland 3 for a quid look like the bees knees of nutrition!!

That's what I was thinking. How can patients be expected to recover if they get fed lousy food?

A close friend of mine went to hospital for cancer. He and his family didn't understand the importance of good nutrition, so he ate soup, white bread and crackers every day. Hospital staff turned a blind eye to what he was eating, when they should have been insisting he eat a balanced meal with meat, veg and fruits. He died.

Not saying he died specifically because of bad diet, but if patients ate properly at a hospital, people would get better sooner and fewer will die.

Saving money by buying junk food is a false economy. And doubly false because the NHS pays through its nose for "junk"!