The word hospital has the same root as hospitable. This implies that you’re welcome, stay as long as you like, it’s what we’re here for.

Hospitals don’t want you to ever leave, it’s their job to keep you for ever. Or at least until you die.

It seems to me that the economic difficulties that this approach of free hospitalisation brings are being dealt with by the cunning device of hospital food.

They’re not allowed to kill you with medicines but they can certainly speed up your departure using food.

Of course, the whole of our society eats really badly. We’re stuffing rubbish into our bodies on a daily basis. But that’s our choice, if we want to kill ourselves that’s fine. My problem is with medical care that fails to recognise the correlation between what we eat and how we feel.

I’ve had a…