This is Leicestershire --Patients were left to go hungry for several hours due to a hospital catering blunder.
Hundreds of meals were delayed for up to three hours at Leicester Royal Infirmary over the weekend.
It resulted in people missing vital medication needed to be taken with food and, to compound the problem, when meals did arrive they were often not those ordered or inadequate for specific dietary requirements.
Sujata Barot, 52, from Belgrave, witnessed the "chaos" first-hand, after being admitted to the infirmary due to a flare-up of her chronic arthritis and psoriasis.
"I was admitted last Thursday but discharged myself on Tuesday," she said. "I'd had enough."
She said on some occasions lunch was served as late as 5.30pm, half-an-hour before supper, while on others, nursing staff had to serve meals at 8pm because catering staff had clocked off.
"I was hungry most of the time," said Ms Barot. "It was utter chaos.
"Patients on my ward, including some with diabetes, were crying they were so upset.
"Patient care and safety was put at risk, with nurses chasing around other wards trying to find food.
"You go into hospital to get better, not to come out feeling even worse.
"I'm incredibly cross."
Ms Barot blames the "complete and utter failure" of a new 'steamed meal' menu system introduced last week whereby patients are supposed to be able to order a wide choice of meals using bedside digital technology.
It has been introduced by private firm Interserve, which took over the facilities management contract at the city's three hospitals in March.
A spokesman for Interserve, which has issued a public apology, blamed "teething problems" with the system but would not be specific what exactly went wrong or what was being done to rectify them.
Zuffar Haq, of the Leicester Mercury Patients' Panel, said he has been inundated with complaints from patients and relatives.
"It's incredibly serious that patients have been served their meals up to three hours late, especially when medication has to be taken with food and at set times," he said.
"It's also totally unacceptable that people order one meal and get something different."
He said he had spoken to the chief executive of the University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust about the matter.
The spokesman for Interserve, whose seven-year contract – worth £300 million – includes catering, cleaning and maintenance, said: "We would like to apologise to patients and patients' families for the disruption to the service of food over the weekend.
"The service was not acceptable and we are working hard to ensure this does not happen again."
He said the system of steamed meals ordered using "electronic tablets" was proving a success, having been introduced earlier at Glenfield Hospital and Leicester General.
He said: "We are sorry that we have had a difficult weekend with the service at Leicester Royal Infirmary, but we are confident that the measures we have put in place will resolve the issues quickly and that patients will be very pleased with the new service."
However, an Interserve employee, who wished to remain anonymous, contacted the Mercury yesterday to say meals were still being served as late as 8pm on Tuesday. Reported by This is 1 day ago.