SIR – The recent calls for review of hospital food triggered a memory from many years ago while I was a patient.

I need to adhere to a gluten-free diet, which the kitchen struggled to cater for. As I was gently dozing, one day, I was awakened by the presence of a suited man and a chef. “I understand you’ve made a complaint about your food,” the suited man uttered. Unbeknown to me, my wife, worried that I was losing weight, had approached the ward sister with her concerns.

I explained the importance of adhering to my diet. They left promising improvements. The next meal beheld the eyes! A massive mound of boiled rice and plain white fish, that was unpalatable without any form of sauce. The remainder of my hospital stay consisted of my wife bringing in meals from home.

On leaving hospital I was prescribed a very large pack of supplement drinks to enable me to regain the weight I had lost while a patient!

I am sure conditions must have improved enormously in the intervening years, but the call for a review makes me wonder.

Michael Masleczko, Claremont Road, Wrose