By JOHN VAN KLAVEREN
The food at Barwon Health’s McKellar Centre is so bad that it’s sometimes inedible and resembles excrement, according to recent rehabilitation patients.
Hamlyn Heights’ John Druzic and Newtown’s Ian McLean said the food was prepared two days in advance and kept in warmers during their weeks as patients.
Fruit was often rotten and bruised, other food “oozed oils and fats” and pasta and rice dishes were dry and hard, they complained.
Mr Druzic, an amputee, said he was a patient for more than five weeks after a complete knee replacement, while Mr McLean spent almost three months in the centre after a leg amputation.
“I was absolutely appalled at the food,” Mr Druzic said.
“But my main concern is, unlike myself, there are many people living at McKellar who are unable to speak for themselves and this is what they’re being served up on a daily basis.
“My dad is there in the nursing home and they’re serving that stuff to him. I feel for my dad and the other people there.”
Mr Druzic said he and Mr McLean complained to their unit manager and requested to speak with the catering manager but were “avoided” for two weeks.
When they eventually spoke with the catering manager they were told the kitchen prepared meals two days in advance and kept them in warmers before serving.
Mr McLean said he turned to friends to bring in replacement meals, went out to get his own food or filled up on sandwiches.
“We called it dinner lotto because you never quite knew what you were going to get and it rarely resembled the description.”
A Barwon Health spokesperson said the McKellar commercial kitchen delivered 3500 meals a day.
“Hospital food is a regular subject of comment but usually this is without a clear understanding of the complexity of delivering meals to people with a wide range of conditions and requirements,” the spokesperson said.
“Some patients and residents have difficulty swallowing, so if they order a meal such as roast pork or lamb it will be pureed to an appropriate consistency; it won’t look like how it’s served at home.
“We utilise a cook/chill process for all our meals, which are then delivered in specialised climate-controlled trolleys before being distributed to patients and residents.”
