Patient’s food budgets shrink
Figures released today demonstrate that the Coalition Government’s restricting of NHS budgets has had an adverse effect on some trusts spending on patient food. Some hospitals and primary care centres have reduced their average daily spend per patient to as low as £2.57, and almost a tenth pay less than £5 per day to feed their patients. This balancing of budgets has been a direct response to the limiting of available capital for such health centres, and many medical recruitment agencies say that some PCTs now see an expert in finance or administrative skills as being as vital to a hospital as an expert physician. This is undoubtedly the case, as hospitals seek to maintain the quality of patient care while finding that the money they have available diminishes.
