OPSEU challenges senior hospital management to eat its own food

(WALKERTON —Sept. 27, 2010) -- The Ontario Public Service Employees Union (OPSEU) is challenging the senior management at South Bruce Grey Health Centre to eat the rethermalized food it wants to foist on patients.

Union president Warren (Smokey) Thomas is challenging SBGHC CEO Paul Davies and VP Brenda Rantz to eat the reheated food for a week. If the two can maintain their body weight only eating the rethermalized food normally served to patients, OPSEU will donate $1,000 to the hospital foundation. If the two lose weight, OPSEU would ask them to reconsider spending scarce health care dollars converting to a food service that patients would find inferior.

“If the retherm meals are as good as Davies and Rantz say, then they should be eager to get on with this challenge,” says Thomas.

SBGHC is going through extensive renovations at its four sites to switch from freshly prepared meals to frozen meals that will be trucked in, reheated in carts and served to patients. The hospital has not released the capital costs of these renovations, nor the cost of buying rethermalization equipment for the new service.

When SBGHC recently dismantled the Durham cafeteria to make way for the service, they left hospital staff with no access to fridges or microwaves to store or warm up their own meals. In a bizarre act, VP Brenda Rantz personally took away all cutlery from the hospital site, leaving some doctors to eat their lunch using tongue depressors. Patients are being served cold meals at Durham following the dismantling of the cafeteria. Staff report food waste is on the rise.

OPSEU has sent a letter to CEO Davies today outlining the conditions of the challenge. The CEO and VP cannot eat or drink any foods not normally served to patients. The proportions must also be equivalent. Rantz and Davies must be weighed before and after a week. Food must be served as patients receive it – after it has sat in a rethermalization cart for thirty minutes.

The union argues there is a growing movement back to fresh hospital food, noting the documented health benefits of serving fresh foods to recovering patients. Each time the food is frozen and reheated, it loses nutritional value. Tasteless food also discourages patients from eating the quantities they need.