Two or three years ago, annoying slebchef Jamie Oliver caused a stir with his TV-based campaign for better food in schools.

His TV series touched a collective nerve among parents in the UK, who for years had just accepted that school dinners were rubbish - because they always had been, ever since those parents were kids. It was just the accepted default status.

Jamie Oliver shook things up and did an excellent job of raising awareness. Thousands of middle class parents backs were got up, and they made a fuss at their local school. Things changed, in a few places, and school meals got that fractional bit better for some kids.

So, following a summer during which I have spent a great deal of time in hospitals, I have a very simple question: why hasn’t the same happened for hospitals?

The situation is the same. Everybody *expects* hospital food to be rubbish, so no-one bothers to complain when it is. This is true even of the staff, the nurses and doctors on duty. They will make throwaway jokes about the food that’s on offer, as a way of clearing the air or lightening the atmosphere after a serious and depressing conversation about terminal illness. *”If the cancer don’t get you, the fish pie will.”*

People in hospital are just as deserving of good food as children in school. Being sick is never enjoyable. A bit of good food might cheer people up. You never know, it might help them get better sooner.

I never thought I’d say this, but: let’s have more Jamie Oliver on our telly screens. If he can have as much impact on our nation’s hospital food as he did on our school dinners, he deserves a primetime slot. No matter how annoying he is.