"Information given on this site is not meant to take the place of a talk with your doctor or health worker."
Good nutritional care and adequate hydration are essential elements of a patient’s treatment. Protected mealtimes are periods of time when all non-urgent activity stops, enabling the patient to eat without interruption and allowing staff to provide assistance as required. This ensures that maximum priority is given to good nutritional care.
Protected mealtimes will vary between wards but will generally be Lunch 12:00 – 14:00, Dinner 16.30 – 18:30
This is a period of time set aside over breakfast lunch and dinner when all non-essential activities on the wards will stop. The nursing staff will be available to serve the food and give support to patients who may need help. This will prevent unnecessary interruptions to mealtimes.
The presentation of food in hospitals is important to ensure that meals are tempting, even to those with the poorest of appetites. The only true measure of success is how much food is eaten. We have introduced protected mealtimes to help our patients get the most nutritional benefit from the food provided.
As well as the patients the only people on the ward will be nursing staff and those involved in food service. All with the same aim; to help, encourage and monitor the patients' food intake during their mealtime and make it an enjoyable experience.
All urgent and emergency treatments will be dealt with as usual.
If you are visiting a ward displaying the protected mealtimes poster, please respect this and try to visit outside the registered protected mealtimes.
If you normally visit at mealtimes to help your relative or friend eat or just give encouragement, we are happy for you to continue to do this. Please ask the nurse in charge how you can help out.
If possible, please try to avoid telephoning the ward for information during these times, so the staff can concentrate on helping the patients with their meal.
Together we can make sure that all our patients are given the appropriate help and the required time to eat and enjoy their meals uninterrupted. This is a key requirement for good nutrition and will help support their recovery.
Patient information leaflets