By GREGG WYCHERLEY
Hundreds of patients at Auckland Hospital and the Starship were forced to wait up to four hours for their meals yesterday.
The Herald received several calls from the relatives of patients who were angry that the patients had been forced to go hungry.
The hospital blamed the delay on
"teething problems" on the first day of a move of kitchen facilities to Green Lane Hospital..
One woman said her 87-year-old aunt, who is diabetic and suffering from pneumonia, was finally fed at 9.20 pm, 6 1/2 hours after her previous meal.
"The patients are all lying here waiting for food and the relatives are waiting to help them with their food - something is totally cocked up.
"These people are too sick to be waiting ... It just seems nobody cares whether these people stay alive or die."
Lunch was also served about two hours late, she said, and when the meals did arrive many of the elderly patients were almost too exhausted to eat.
Hospital spokeswoman Brenda Saunders said meals for about 650 patients were late.
The transfer of kitchen facilities to Green Lane was a temporary measure until the kitchens at Auckland had been refurbished.
A grandmother of a child being treated at Starship children's hospital said many of the children were kept awake past their normal bedtime, and some had their medication delayed.
"They normally get their dinner at five o'clock ... Some of those children have to wait for medication to have with their meal."
Ms Saunders said the kitchen renovations, part of a restructuring of Auckland Hospital, were expected to take about two months, and should result in better-quality food for the patients.
"We can only apologise. Obviously, there's been some kind of problem. It's not going to be a regular occurrence though."
