London: UK hospitals are used to being criticised for the food and drink they serve. However, at the renowned King Edward VII’s private hospital (pictured right) in London patients benefit from the introduction of a fine wine list on a par with the finest restaurants.

Berry Bros. & Rudd, the fine wine merchants in St. James’s Street, London has developed a list of fine wines and Champagnes to compliment the sophisticated menus on offer to patients at King Edward VII’s Hospital.

King Edward’s chief executive Clive Bath says:

“It made sense to us that the most exclusive private hospital in London should get together with London’s best wine merchant to provide our patients with a serious choice of wines. And of course good wine drunk in moderation has been shown to have health giving properties.”

Simon Berry, chairman of Berry Bros. & Rudd says:

“For over 300 years, Berrys’ has supplied fine wine to wine lovers, royal families, actors, celebrities and politicians. It seems entirely appropriate that patients recovering from illness or an operation should be able to benefit from the pleasure of fine wine too.”

This isn’t the first time Berrys’ has supplied wine to the King Edward VII’s Hospital. The hospital’s operating theatre entry for 11 May 1917 recorded that surgeon Mr Clayton Green and his anaesthetist Dr Powell used Berrys’ Champagne as an anaesthetic during an operation. The procedure investigated a haemorrhage, following amputation of the right arm of a young Second Lieutenant of the Essex Regiment wounded in France.

Patient care has indeed come a long way since 1917!