The FINANCAIL -- Sodexo
Healthcare has been re-awarded a contract at Chesterfield Royal
Hospital, worth around £4.8m.
The new deal began at the start of June and is for an initial three-year period. It remains a cook-freeze operation with a combination of on-site produced general menu products and meals from Tillery Valley, Sodexo's food production business.
According to Caterer and Hotelkeeper, there will also be an extensive in-house produced special diet menu range that caters for 14 different special diet categories.
Patient meals are produced in a central production kitchen, using specialist regeneration trolleys, which are then transported to wards where they are served to patients by trust staff.
New initiatives to be brought in include the introduction of a ward stores assistant to help manage ward issues such as waste; two snacks per patient per day; protected breakfasts; volunteer feeders at meal times; and an electronic same-day patient meal ordering system.
Andrew Jones, the hospital's director of allied clinical and facilities services, commented: "The provision of high-quality patient meals is a priority for both our board of directors and council of governors.
"Excellent nutrition, a variety of choice and the ability to cater for every individual's dietary needs supports the recovery process. We aim to make mealtimes a social occasion for our patients, and we are looking forward to introducing new initiatives with Sodexo."
Caron Bromley, general manager for Sodexo at the hospital, added: "We have worked in partnership with this trust for over 13 yeas and we are delighted that we have been re-awarded this contract so that we can continue to develop our strong relationship with the trust and to enhance the dining experience for patients."
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