Reading Chronicle | Opinion | Leader: Hospital is in with the big boys

Friday, 25th July, 2008

Published: Thursday, 15th May, 2008 09:45

Leader: Hospital is in with the big boys

By Reading Chronicle, The Voice of Reading

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THE enforced departure of Reading’s football team from the Premiership was depressing enough, not to mention the prospect of another 12 months of political in-fighting on the hung borough council.

But it is equally dispiriting to realise that - with a knife murder and a savage shooting in the past fortnight - the town is apparently trying to catch up with other parts of the country where bloody street violence is a routine occurrence.

So it is heartening to see that, despite a few rough edges, the independent Healthcare Commission reports that we can boast a hospital that is poised to rub shoulders with the big boys.

Statistics showing 80% of patients feel they were treated with respect and dignity, and 79% rated their care as either good or excellent, however do not satisfy Ann Sheen, chief executive of the Royal Berkshire Hospital, who pledges today that she and her colleagues will not rest until they are the best in the land in every category.

But if the patient satisfaction survey does not quite put the RBH in the Manchester United and Chelsea bracket, then our exclusive story about the hospital’s world leading research breakthrough on the eating habits of the elderly will surely put Reading into the Champions League.

News of the successful collaboration between the RBH and scientists at Reading University will be a source of joy to every carer who has ever tried to convince an elderly relative or patient that the nutritious food needed to enhance their autumn years still tastes as good as it ever did.

Restaurateur Heston Blumenthal’s quirky but award-winning cuisine is always good for a tabloid headline or two, but it is wonderful to know that his acknowledged genius is being harnessed to the specialist skills of Professor Margot Gosney, consultant in elderly care at the hospital, through the work of the nutrition and food biosciences department at the university.

The three years of research ahead of them is already being closely watched by global food manufacturers and that can only be good news when it comes to helping elderly people everywhere to start enjoying the taste of life again.

And once that work is complete we will be proud to declare that, for all the right reasons, both Reading and the Royal Berkshire Hospital are on top of the world.

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