A SERIOUSLY ill patient was so disgusted with the food on offer at Colchester Hospital he wrote to his MP about it... and managed to get hospital bosses to change the menu.

Graeme Hatton, of Colne Engaine, submitted an official complaint about the quality of the sustenance on offer at the healthcare facility to Braintree MP James Cleverly as well as hospital chief executive Nick Hulme.

Mr Hatton, who spent a total of 17 weeks in the hospital last year due to a serious lung condition, said some of the food was so bad he “wouldn’t even feed it to his dogs”.

The 66-year-old decided to submit an official complaint during his most recent spell in hospital last month after he and his fellow Layer Marney ward patients were served what he could only describe as “some form of chicken with mashed potato” and “mashed potato, scrambled egg and cauliflower” for dinner one day.

“Some of the meals are so bad, no matter how hungry you are, you cannot bring yourself to eat them,” he said.

“Obviously you have to have a certain amount of sympathy for the NHS, they only have so much funding, but food should be a priority in the hospital.

“It is a well-known fact patients are leaving hospital malnourished and it has been going on for years.

“Prisoners get fed better than patients now. This has got to stop.”

He added: “Every patient in my ward complained bitterly about it and a member of staff then made us all toast.”

After Mr Hatton submitted his official complaint via email, with attached pictures of the food in question, the issue was referred to the hospital’s facilities department.

The hospital have admitted the food was not up to scratch and said it has made changes to rectify the issue going forward.

Fiona Sparrow, head of facilities at the East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust, said: “We completely appreciate Mr Hatton’s viewpoints and have changed both the menu and the system we used since he kindly raised this issue.”

In a column for The Oldie magazine, Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith said “inedible” NHS food was preventing patients from recovering from illnesses.