Press Release

8 May 2008

Hospital chief dishes up patient food

The chief executive of mid Essex hospitals personally delivered lunch to hospital patients this week to celebrate the launch of the Trust’s new catering contract.

Ruth May spent half an hour on the orthopedic ward, B26, chatting with catering staff and serving patients their lunch.  She also chatted to patients to get their views on the new hospital food.

The new contract, which was awarded to Medirest, began on 1 April and means:

• There are now dedicated catering staff at ward level to serve food and drinks
• Patients are provided two hot meals a day, as opposed to one before
• ‘Steamplicity’ meals are provided which is a method of cooking using steam pressure and a controlled steam release valve that guarantees high retention of nutritional content and allows a greater choice of meals

Paul Aitchison, director of estates, said: “ Our new catering contract brings a number of advantages for our inpatients and also to staff and visitors as we are also had an upgrade to our restaurant facilities.  Good nutrition is very important for hospital patients and this new contract means we can now provide our patients with two, hot, nutritionally sound meals each day.”

ENDS

Media contact : Jo Triggs tel: (01245) 514235 | Mobile : 0790 005 4948