Denia is a town on the Costa Blanca.It is a really lovely Spanish working town with ferries to the Balearic islands.It does have a tourist interest and one section of the coast is too touristy for my liking.However it has a new hospital on the outskirts of the town in La Xara.
The hospital is state of the art but like most hospitals,food for the patients does not come high on the agenda.The medical profession just doesn’t seem to equate food with health.Food is the building block of the healthy body,yet the food provided in virtually every hospital in the world is inadequate.It shouldn’t be rocket science to work out a menu that will “tickle” jaded palates and enable the patients to become well sooner.My goodness ,why not even prescribe a multi vitamin and mineral pill once a day to supplement the diet?
There are certain dishes which translate well to mass catering and caterers do not seem to use them.The palates are jaded and so the patients want something “tasty” to encourage them to eat.This week one of the meals served in the Marina Salud managed hospital was a cutlet of fish with a dish of soggy overcooked vegetables.The fish was also totally tasteless and overcooked.I saw so many trays being returned not eaten that it started to make me think not only of the food waste but also the financial waste at this hospital and most others on a daily basis.
Patients generally want small quantities and if the fish could have been served as a fish pie in a tasty saucewith a small salad of grated carrots then maybe more people would have enjoyed the experience and gained in nutrients.Many patients weaken because they just do not eat or they have to rely on their families to sustain them.This is not good medicine.
