Maybe the meal-planner geniuses decided it would be OK to give sick old folks cold-cuts or deli meat to eat. That’s part of what happened in Canada in 2008 when 23 people – elderly with pre-existing medical conditions, many already in institutions — died from listeria-laden Maple Leaf deli meats.

Yesterday, an elderly patient died in an outbreak of listeria in two Northern Ireland hospitals.

The pensioner was one of two patients in the Antrim Area Hospital that contracted the foodborne bacteria. Another acquired the bug in the Causeway Hospital on the region’s north coast.

The patient who died was already ill but listeria has been confirmed as a contributory cause of death.

Both hospitals are managed by the Northern Trust, which has declared an outbreak.