While visiting my father, I was totally horrified to discover that inpatients at St Helier Hospital are no longer given a cooked evening meal. This is appalling.

Having spent huge amounts of effort to ensure that Merton school children are well fed with tasty nutritious food, I cannot believe that the sick and infirm at St Helier are not given the same consideration.

Surely we judge a society by how it treats its vulnerable citizens, ie the elderly, the young and the sick.

Do we need to set up a Merton Patients for Better Food in Hospital? There must be some civic-minded individuals, relatives, councillors or trade unionists willing to take a lead on this. The experience of Merton Parents for Better Food in Schools has shown that when parents campaign they are able to win massive improvements. Surely we can do the same for hospital patients. Who is willing to take a stand on this?

JACKIE SCHNEIDER
Chairwoman of Merton Parents for Better Food in Schools
jackieschneider@blueyonder.co.uk