Patients at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary don’t rate their grub.

A survey of hospital food in England in 2014 has dubbed meals from the infirmary’s kitchen as “among the worst”.

HRI is ranked as the second worst in West Yorkshire, after Seacroft Hospital in Leeds, and the 15th worst in England.

Calderdale Royal and Dewsbury and District Hospital were both ranked in the mid-table category of “ok” on the NHS Choices website.

The hospital ratings are based on the results of the 2014 Patient-Led Assessments of the Care Environment.

Assessment teams comprising a mix of patients and volunteers visited hospitals and tasted every item of food on offer in a selection of wards.

They also looked at how well the food was served, including whether the ward was prepared for mealtimes, whether patients had the chance to wash their hands and whether unnecessary activity was stopped during the meals.

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust head of catering, Andrew Donegan, said: “The main issue arising from this survey last year was the temperature of the food received by our patients at HRI and not the choice or the quality.

“We took this feedback on board immediately and have changed the delivery service both from the kitchen to the ward and from the ward to our patients to ensure food temperatures are maintained. Both Calderdale Royal Hospital and Huddersfield Royal Infirmary have introduced home-made soups at both lunch and tea times which have been extremely well accepted by our patients"

“Both hospitals carry out 100 patient satisfaction surveys per month ensuring feedback is acted upon immediately.”

“The trust is also working closely with Healthwatch, clinical commissioners and Public Health to improve the food service as we know this makes such a huge difference to our patients’ recoveries.”

The poor result conflicts with a survey last year by Kirklees Healthwatch, which found most people liked their hospital food.

Director, Rory Deighton, said: “The NHS Choices results are interesting. Our experience was basically good when we visited last summer, though we have heard some poor stories as well.

“We believe that the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust is committed to improving patients experience of hospital food, and are working in partnership with them.

“We are due to visit again in April 2015 to see what improvements have been made.”