Jamie Oliver's just got an award from BBC Radio 4 in recognition of his school dinner campaign. Quite right too.

The trouble is, there's only one Jamie Oliver and too many causes needing his attention. For instance, didn't someone once suggest he should turn his attention to hospital food?

It wouldn't be a moment too soon. To be fair, there are hospitals that serve decent food to their patients. I'm told Darlington Memorial is one of the best. All credit to them, but I suspect being the best isn't difficult when you look at the competition.

Some years ago our daughter had to spend a long time as a patient in one of the big London teaching hospitals. The medical care she received was beyond reproach. In fact, it saved her life. The nurses and doctors were, without exception, wonderful, caring people.

But the food! Take the macaroni cheese (which I hope I never have to). It was always one of our favourites at home, good comfort food. So when our daughter saw it on the menu she put a tick against it and hoped for the best. I was there when the tray was brought in, with its plate of greyish slop. Our daughter gazed at it, unimpressed. It certainly didn't look good - no golden colour, no crusty brown topping; nor was there even a hint of that good cheesey smell rising from it.

Maybe, we thought optimistically, it would taste better than it looked. It didn't. Or so my daughter said, after one cautious mouthful. But it was possible that she simply hadn't got much appetite that day, so I tried it too - and she was absolutely right. What taste it had (and that was minimal) was completely disgusting. In fact, that macaroni cheese was inedible, by anyone, sick or well.

If you're only in hospital for a few days with some minor complaint, then it probably doesn't matter too much if the food isn't very tempting. But patients in our daughter's ward tended to stay for weeks, even months at a time. They needed good food to boost their weakened immune systems and help them get well. And they just weren't getting it. When we discovered that the food was prepared somewhere in Wales and flown all the way to the hospital in London it suddenly explained everything. How could you possibly expect decent food when it is cooked hundreds of miles away from where it is served?

In fact, now and then, there was good food in the ward. One of the domestic staff - she was one of those despised economic migrants from Eastern Europe - used the small kitchen to prepare the most delicious fresh salads for those who could eat them. Unfortunately, most of the patients weren't allowed uncooked food, so they could only gaze at those colourful, lovingly-prepared salads with longing. The other thing they could do was to ask their friends and relatives to buy Marks & Spencer's ready meals to heat in the kitchen's microwave. Just so they didn't go hungry.

It shouldn't be like that in any hospital. Sick people should be given the very best food, freshly cooked in the hospital's own kitchens, using the best ingredients. If they don't get good food at home, then they need it even more when they're in hospital.

So I wish Jamie would take this on. And when he's finished with hospitals, how about residential care homes - in good time, before I need to move into one?

Published: 08/12/2005