The Karnataka government on Monday announced that a special nutritional diet plan aimed at aiding patient recovery will be introduced in government hospitals for the first time in the state.
Until now, patients admitted to government district and taluk hospitals—especially children, pregnant women, and new mothers—were served the same type of general food, the Health and Family Welfare Department said. This programme is being implemented in collaboration with ISKCON.
Earlier, all inpatients—including children, pregnant women, and new mothers—were provided with a common meal plan, officials said. "This was not effective enough to meet their specific nutritional requirements. Since nutritional needs vary according to a patient’s health condition and age, providing the same diet to everyone was not suitable.
To address this issue, the Karnataka government has completely revised the food system in government hospitals. Now, meals are categorised based on patients’ medical needs," the health department said in a statement.
New system
Meals have been divided into five key categories: General diet plan, therapeutic diet plan, pregnancy diet plan, postnatal diet plan and paediatric diet plan.