Lesbatees Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 ... or is it just me?After all the wonderful things I'd read about French hospital catering, I was expecting a culinary treat each day. Boy, was I disappointed!The food I was served was every bit as bad as the school dinners I remember with loathing. Tired veg, tinned fruit, same bloody packet soup for starter every evening ...Of course, I wasn't expecting much on the vegetarian front, but JUST plain boiled pasta with not even a hint of sauce five nights out of fourteen was a bit much even by French standards. If it wasn't for my other half, who cooked me pies, nutroasts and pasties and bought them in every day, I'd have starved.To rub it in, a friend who was in Reading's Royal Berks hospital around the same time was offered three different choices of menu - standard, vegetarian and halal - and said that all three were great.Maybe I was just unlucky. What have your experiences of French hospital catering been like?Val Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Teamedup Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 LOL Pasta without sauce, since when do people serve it with sauce here. I have often been given a plate of pasta, not even butter on it. And I haven't been in hospital much here, but the food was fine when I was, even the brains were rather nice. Frankly I would have been surprised if you had said that they did cater for vegetarians. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opas Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 that form one completes at the start of ones hospital stay asks all sorts of health related questions and eating habbits.....they must pass that on to some national food chain `cos the hospital don`t take any notice . ie our youngest was asked about which foods she couldn`t eat and I answered that no salt to be added, what did they give her for her salad entree? radish with salt! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Punch Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 [quote]... or is it just me?After all the wonderful things I'd read about French hospital catering, I was expecting a culinary treat each day. Boy, was I disappointed!The food I was served was every bit as ...[/quote]LOL your are quite right. I spent a few days having a back op last year in Mayenne hospital and the food was less than desirable. In fact in the evening, I came round after the op and was given watery soup in a mug with a large spoon, followed by a huge curved black pudding! It was made worse by the fact that I had to lay flat and eat for three days. That night the black pudding make a hasty reappearance all over my bed and floor ! (That might have had something to do with the old French fellow in the bed next to me farting all night long!) The poor girl on night duty thought it was my blood and something horrible had happened to my insides!!! I was told if I wanted my own room, I would not be fully reimbursed. In fact next time (if there is a next time) I don't care, I'm having my own room so I can be ill in private without having to move my room mates chair and table just to get to the loo.Apologies to anyone having their tea!Paul Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pucette<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Pucette<FONT><P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">"Qui ne connaît pas la campagne lhiver, ne connaît pas la campagne et ne connaît pas Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 I've only stayed in hospital for a few days, about eight years ago; the food was fine, institutional catering but perfectly decent. There was no vegetarian option as such; I suspect that if requested it would have been similar. Meat and two veg without the meat or worse. I was given a room on my own because of the personal nature of the care required. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miki Posted January 22, 2005 Share Posted January 22, 2005 Members of the family, including me twice have had ops here and I must say the food was passable at best and on occasions, awful and at best edible. The last time I was in, my diet was mistakenly given to the chap in the next bed and I was given his, 3 days until it was noticed and only then because we both felt the food we were being given, didn't seem to fit with what we were told to eat after the op ! Our joint trust in the staff, was misplaced a little !We are hearing more and more about the new Clinique which opened up not too far away, where the food is said to be wonderful with 3 choices for all courses !! Some French I have spoken with, seem to worry about the hospital food first and surgeon second !!Agree with Paul, I would ask members living here to think twice about not wanting a single room. If your neighbour gets plenty of visitors and you just want some peace and quiet, added to the pesonal habits of your room guest, the extra cost seems not so bad after all ....................... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesbatees Posted January 23, 2005 Author Share Posted January 23, 2005 Thanks all. Glad its not just me - I don't feel quite so deprived now! I even felt quite lucky after reading the black pudding story (yuk!).With regard to the veggie isue we wrote a letter expressing our disappointment to the administration of the Clinique which I put with the customer satisfaction survey left for me to fill in. We pointed out that the booklet they give you at the beginning of the stay does say that special diets can be easily accommodated. Of course, we haven't received an answer.I'm due to go in for another extended stay in early Feb - be interesting to see if anything changes. Somehow, I doubt it.Ah wel, c'est la vie.Val Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Russethouse Posted January 23, 2005 Share Posted January 23, 2005 Personally I was glad to read that the Royal Berks has improved without having to stay there to find out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Me0wp00 Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 I stayed in Limoges hospital for 5 days and the food was excellent. The only disappointment was that there was no vin, eau or coke served with the meal. I had a choice every day and 3 courses for lunch 4 courses for dinner, including veal, rabbit, porc, beef, steak. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pucette<P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3>Pucette<FONT><P><FONT face="Times New Roman" size=3><P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt">"Qui ne connaît pas la campagne lhiver, ne connaît pas la campagne et ne connaît pas Posted January 24, 2005 Share Posted January 24, 2005 The same as me? CHU Dupuytren (sp?!)? The guineafowl was particularly fine. I suspect that vegetarians would have got plain boiled pasta at best; no meat in that is there? Special diet catered for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
guapeton Posted February 14, 2005 Share Posted February 14, 2005 what a stupid posting, obviously for no other reason than complain about france for the sake of it. like hospital food is anything but lousy anywhere..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Diana Posted February 24, 2005 Share Posted February 24, 2005 Depends where you go, the last hospital I was in the UK, the food was better than the average resturant and the wine list quite aceptable. And as for the full English breakfast in the morning, I'm just glad they had starved me all the prevous day as I was ravenous and it was delicious.Diana Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battypuss Posted February 25, 2005 Share Posted February 25, 2005 I have no complaint about the food in the Clinique I was in last year; they even tried to force feed me wine "to cheer me up"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coco Posted March 2, 2005 Share Posted March 2, 2005 [quote]I have no complaint about the food in the Clinique I was in last year; they even tried to force feed me wine "to cheer me up"![/quote]Obviously not the St Jean in Saint LO then Batypuss. My mum was in there in September and I told her the food would be great (remembering my bosses tales of his mum's stay in a French hospital, where she enjoyed excellent food and wine every day.)Thankfully it was still pretty hot whilst mum was in there, so I was able to take salads and fresh fruit salads into her, otherwise she would have gone three weeks with virtually no fresh veg whatsoever, apart from a few lettuce leaves and tomato salads.Can't say the same of the nursing care or cleaning though - they were absolutely excellent, and with the room being swabbed down three times a day, including the bed frame and door handles, there was virtually no chance of MRSA being present in that hospital.Lousy food was a small price to pay for the peace of mind in other aspects. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesbatees Posted March 3, 2005 Author Share Posted March 3, 2005 "Lousy food was a small price to pay for the peace of mind in other aspects"Couldn't agree more. Just back from an 8 day stay for major surgery, the standard of care was superb, the cleanliness of the wards couldn't be faulted, and the nursing staff dealt patiently with the fact that my grasp of the French language tended to desert me at the most inopportune moments.One little incident says it all. On the day of the operation, to my great surprise, they let me keep my Sony Walkman right up to the point they knocked me out - I was expecting to be told to leave it in the room. I passed out happily to the glorious strains of JS Bach. When I came to, hubby, who had been waiting for me in my room, reported he had found it waiting for me on the bedside table. Some kind soul had made the journey from ground to third floor in order to deliver it before I woke up.I was impressed.Afraid as far as the food was concerned tho' it was omelette every night for five nights. My surgeon reckoned desperation was a big factor in my swift recovery. :-).Val Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Battypuss Posted March 3, 2005 Share Posted March 3, 2005 [quote]Obviously not the St Jean in Saint LO then Batypuss. My mum was in there in September and I told her the food would be great (remembering my bosses tales of his mum's stay in a French hospital, where...[/quote]Same Clinique, different food! I had plenty of choice and would have eaten most of it happily; this was last June. Perhaps they've changed caterers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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