I DON’T know exactly how much experience Sharron Griffiths has of hospital food but in a recent 15 month period I was hospitalised ten times in four different hospitals, with three different life threatening problems.

In Darlington Memorial Hospital the menu was extensive and food excellent quality, with fresh fruit and salads available daily. The Friarage in Northallerton (four years ago) was perhaps not so good, but on a visit last week for a procedure the new kitchens and cafeteria offered an excellent menu.

While in the Freeman in Newcastle, I was too ill to care and in James Cook I was on a special diet to enable me to swallow again, but the food served to fellow patients was given good reports by them.

It is all too easy to complain and I feel it is often because it is what one is expected to do.

However, 26 years ago, when my wife was in Aberdeen Maternity Hospital, we saw people turn up their noses to perfectly good food and often wondered what they ate at home.

Jake Spence, Brompton on Swale