Prices of sugary foods in the Countess of Chester Hospital’s shops and cafés may rise if the NHS ‘sugar tax’ gets the go-ahead.
Health service boss Simon Stevens has revealed his plan to introduce a levy on sugar-added foods and drinks in a bid to tackle the obesity crisis.
The tax – which is to be rolled out by 2020 – could raise between £20m and £40m.
By charging more, it is hoped staff, patients and visitors will be discouraged from buying items with a high sugar content.
NHS has a responsibility
In an interview with the Guardian, chief executive of NHS England Simon Stevens said the service has a responsibility to ‘draw attention to and make the case for some of the wider changes that will actually improve the health of this country’.
He said: “We will be consulting on introducing an NHS sugar tax on various beverages and other sugar-added foods across the NHS which would be enforced over time as contracts for food catering and the shops that are in the foyers of hospitals come up for renewal over the next three to five years over a rolling basis.
“By 2020, we’ve either got these practices out of hospitals or we’ve got the equivalent of a sugar tax on the back of them.”
The Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust already operates a traffic light system on the staff restaurant menu and the catering team is in the process of adding posters to drinks fridges which will highlight the number of teaspoons of sugar selected beverages contain.
Catering manager Craig Hough said: “As a hospital we are aware of the responsibility we have to our patients, visitors and staff to ensure there are healthy options available in our cafes.
“There is significant choice when it comes to the foods and drinks we offer with customers and staff able to choose low calorie, low fat and low sugar options of meals, drinks and snacks if they choose to do so.
“We look forward to receiving more information from NHS England before implementing any price changes in our cafes.”
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