A Sandwich Too Many?

A Sandwich Too Many?

Early in March the public were asked to support an NHS Change Day and through the media people stated what they would do to improve health care.   There are things that the public can do and that can help to reduce the number of appointments that are wasted through non-attendance at hospitals, GP surgeries and other health-related services.  My thoughts also went to another area where waste is evident. 

There are, for instance, sometimes trays of sandwiches, platters of fruit and Danish pastries all temptingly displayed.  How many health and social care events have you attended in the last year where you have been offered lunches for which you have not paid and which have been paid for from ever decreasing budgets?  At national and local level, in both statutory health and social care settings and in the voluntary sectors, we have come to expect refreshment, not just tea, coffee, juice, water and biscuits but lunch, too.   It has become a way of life that we take for granted.

Refreshments at events and meetings are seldom, if ever, are paid for by delegates and we seldom concern ourselves with who pays for this food and what happens to all that is left over.  Occasionally people may take left-over sandwiches for a long journey homeward.   More often we leave the food for the events or meeting organisers to clear away, and we see it tipped into large black plastic bin liners, producing more environmental waste.  

And yet, elsewhere, people are hungry and thirsty.   The number of food banks opening up increases week on week. The number of lonely older people increases week on week.  Health and safety regulations forbid the passing of food on to people who are hungry, thirsty and lonely in many instances and it cannot be sold and the income used to provide much needed services.

We have become a wasteful world; most of us know that and feel there is little we can do about it. What a mindless and self-centred state we have reached in terms of our expectations.  Many people have grown up in recent years with an expectation they will be fed when in attendance at meetings.  Refreshments come from these cash poor statutory and voluntary sector budgets and seldom, if ever, is this waste identified. 

Food brings with it a feel-good factor, a scarce 'freebie' in health and social care organisations that can rarely afford to reward staff but free hospitality comes with a price tag, seldom recorded.    If that money were calculated, it could provide services currently deemed too costly.  For example, there could be more local training for volunteers to visit lonely older people, money would be available to support more social activity for people in residential settings who are bored. 

This is just one area of waste within our health and social care budgets and one reason why it often goes unacknowledged is because these organisations think of finance in terms of thousands or millions of pounds rather than how small savings made can make a huge difference.   Individual pounds add up, not just in accounts under the heading of ‘hospitality’ but around people's waistlines.

Ironically, as this blog was about to be posted, there was a health and social care event where the lunch-time sandwiches ran out! 

Ann Macfarlane OBE

March 2014