How we use you feedback on the patient meal system
We are taking ongoing steps to improve our hospital meal service after receiving a high number of complaints from our patients in the first few months after a new system was introduced.
At the end of 2009 we introduced a new system for patient meals provided by Medirest and based on a cooking method called “Steamplicity”. The new system has a number of advantages including a higher quality of patient meal and choice. Patients were involved in selecting the system and tasting sessions demonstrated it to be a superior product to the old catering system we were using.
As we rolled the system out across our hospital beds, we did experience challenges in some areas in delivery meals at an appropriate time, providing regular drinks and in some cases in the quality of the food being served.
After an urgent review we have taken a series of steps to improve the service and have been providing regular updates via this website.
The improvements we have made during the first half of 2010 include:
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Recruiting four additional supervisors to cover weekends and evenings
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Weekly monitoring of the delivery times of meals and drinks to ensure patients are receiving these at appropriate times of day
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Daily monitoring of patient feedback by the management team responsible for the meal service so that issues are dealt with promptly
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Running a fully operational helpdesk to improve communication between our wards and the catering service
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A new menu is now in place, offering a greater choice for vegetarians
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Improvements in the nutritional content of meals, decreasing sodium content by 11% and increasing calories by 5%.
After taking these steps, in April 2010 our monitoring showed that:
We continue to work with Medirest to deliver further improvements to the service and in particular are ensuring that the optimum staffing levels are in place to run the system.
Your comments
We have received a variety of comments through this web site and this has helped us to identify the hot spot areas where urgent action is needed to improve the system.
If you have any further comments on the service please continue to use the feedback form|.