At Tamil Nadu’s largest government health facility - Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH) - the staff have been observing a significant rise in the number of patients preferring to take the food served by the hospital in the last few months.
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The hospital’s disease-specific nine types of diet has turned into a hit among patients, with the institution now putting in place a new feedback mechanism by deploying its cooks, instead of housekeeping staff, to serve the food at the wards.
A revamped kitchen and small modifications in patients’ diets has increased the patronage for the meals served by the hospital that has an in-patient strength of 2,400. In addition, patients know the day’s servings as information on the prescribed diets along with the total calorie intake is displayed in wards.
RGGGH’s nine types of diets
“During our regular hospital rounds, we noticed that the majority of patients consumed food from outside, particularly hotels. So we concentrated on the diet being readied by the hospital. We wanted to make it tastier and palatable. We wanted to ensure that quality is not compromised and put in place National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers’ guidelines. We ensured that the groceries, including rice and vegetables, are of good quality,” E. Theranirajan, RGGGH dean, said.
The hospital installed an automatic chapati maker that made 700 chapatis per hour. The dean said that every day, three samples of the meals cooked for patients are tested by them before it is served. “As a result of these measures, nearly 90% of our in-patients prefer to consume the hospital food now,” he said.
Kalarani. R, RGGGH’s dietician, said they were implementing a Government Order specifying diet for patients with small modifications based on disease and preference of patients as well. “We have disease-specific diets,” she said, adding that one of the main objectives was to reduce consumption of bread and milk.
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“We have tailor-made our diets for different categories of patients based on their needs. For instance, patients undergoing radiation therapy cannot take solid food. So, we give them kanji made of broken rice, milk, curd and juice with eight mosambi/oranges. We were serving mint rice for renal/hepatic patients. As not many preferred it, we serve them thinly/thickly cooked dal with rice. Similarly, as per the G.O., patients with diabetes should be given rasam rice/chapati for lunch but many did not prefer rasam rice. So, we replaced it with sambar rice, taking their preference into account,” she said.
The rights of patients were reinforced through the tagline - Ungal unnavu ungal urimai (Your food is your right) to tell them that they can ask and get food based on their needs, she said, adding: “The response is good. Consumption of outside food has definitely reduced. We, however, do not restrict consumption of homemade food.”
Students of B.Sc. Clinical Nutrition were engaged in getting feedback from the patients on a regular basis. “Earlier, the housekeeping staff were distributing the food. Presently, our cooks are involved in serving the food at the wards. Through this, we want the cooks to understand the patients’ acceptability and establish a connect,” she said.
Dr. Theranirajan said the health status of the cooks and employees were monitored. Next, the hospital plans to pilot the use of trays for serving the food for patients.
