An article in last week’s Oxford Mail reveals that Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust is planning to replace kitchens in five community hospitals with pre-heating of chilled meals cooked off-site. A campaign is now underway to save the hospital kitchens.
According to Oxford Health the new system of 'cook chill' meals would be more cost effective. However, a report by the Campaign for Better Hospital Food finds that sub-contracting catering to external private contractors can in fact cost more in the long term. “Nottingham City Hospital, for example, saved an estimated £6 million by going back to freshly preparing and cooking food on-site after a period of contracted-out catering. John Hughes, Catering Manager at the trust, informally estimates that the NHS could make annual savings of £400 million if every hospital did likewise.”
Besides, hospitals that freshly prepare patient meals in their own kitchen can buy food from suppliers of their choice, including local producers of high quality seasonal food. Figures show that every £1 spent by public sector institutions such as hospitals on local and seasonal food creates £3 of economic benefits. These benefits will be lost when closing hospital kitchens.
But more than that, providing freshly cooked healthy food is an integral part to patient care and vital for their recovery. Food made on-site from fresh, seasonal ingredients has higher patient satisfaction ratings than pre-made food, leading to less food waste “A survey of caterers in 2013 found that eight out of ten hospital catering staff would prefer to prepare and cook patient meals from scratch in their own kitchen and seven out of ten said that having the use of their own kitchen would enable them to prepare higher quality meals.”
Please support the campaign to save Oxford Health's hospital kitchens and sign the petition.
[ibimage==4048==content_image_full_width==none==self==null]
Please log in or sign up to comment.