A food writer who found herself in intensive care with Covid has described some of the “delicious” food she was given.

Diana Henry, who writes a regular cookery column for the Daily Telegraph, was admitted to Whittington Hospital with Covid and pneumonia in January this year.

In a recent article for Vogue, she explained that while hospital food is “much maligned”, she was excited for every meal during her stay.

One of her “delicious” favourites was Moroccan vegetable tajine – although she admitted that generally “the standard is only slightly better than school meals”.

She added: “We took it seriously; everyone had strong opinions about what to order.

“I ate chicken tikka masala, beef stroganoff and Moroccan vegetables with couscous.

“I was excited for every meal, pouring my curry out of a scorching plastic tray on to a bed of rice.

“‘You have to have the salmon with spinach,’ said Carol in the bed beside me, and she was right.”

Diana said that she came home from the ICU in March, and thanked the "great team" who looked after her.

Figures from health watchdog Care Quality Commission (CQC) show that patient satisfaction at the Whittington Health NHS Trust has increased over the last year.

Overall, patients rated their care at eight out of ten, up by half a point compared to 2023.

Whittington Health’s acting CEO, Dr Clare Dollery, said: “It isn’t every day that as an NHS CEO someone comes into your office to say we’re featured in British Vogue, so I was thrilled to read about Diana Henry’s positive experiences of our care.

“I was also delighted that the CQC’s findings show that her positive experience mirrors that of the vast majority of our in-patients.”