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I was reading the summary on hospital stays and needed to pass this on.  I live in a small city of about 60,000 people.   One elderly gentleman with celiac was hospitalized many times for various conditions with the same stories you always hear about receiving the wrong foods.   He continually raised a fuss.  The dieticians knew him by name.... and they always rolled their eyes when his name came up.   But still, he wasn't receiving GF meals.   Needless to say, he continued to kick up a royal fuss.   Well, finally it worked!!

Our hospital now flags all patients with celiac disease.  They are visited by the chef or dietician (as usual), but now our hospital chef bakes GF bread for these patients.   And they shop the local health food stores for the pasta, cookies, and other staples, etc.     So we have made great strides in this area.   Only exception is that the bread is served unheated and untoasted, and it is still difficult to choke down.   But I guess it takes small steps to make great strides.  

I am an employee of that hospital and during transcriptionists week, the hospital cafeteria sent our lunches up.  I asked my boss to request a GF meal.   When it came up in sandwich form, I was very afraid to eat it.   I headed to the cafeteria to flush out the chef.  He assured me everything was GF, that he had baked the bread, bought the cookies and checked all the ingredients.   So I ate without fear....except the bread was not toasted....making swallowing difficult.   

Maybe if enough people gripe LOUD enough, things will change.

Good Luck,
Bev Messner
Mansfield, Ohio

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