10 March 2009
It's official. Patients at Epsom and St Helier hospitals are telling their catering department: you're doing a good job.
Results of a recent survey conducted by the Trust show that patients are happy with hospital food.
95 per cent of patients told the hospitals that the quality of their food - and the way it was presented - was excellent or good whilst 99 per cent said that meals were always or mostly served at the required temperature.
But it's not just the food which is scoring high marks: patients are praising the service too.
For lunches and evening meals, patients select their preferred choice of food from an extensive menu and their meal is brought to them at the appropriate time.
96 per cent of patients who ordered lunch said they always got what they ordered, and 99 per cent said the ward catering hostess was mostly or always helpful.
Overall, 93 per cent of patients rated the catering service excellent or good at both Epsom and St Helier hospitals.
One St Helier patient who's very happy with the food is Philomene Compton, who has just celebrated her 93rd birthday. She said: "They give me breakfast, lunch and tea and it's always hot. I get plenty of cups of tea during the day too, and biscuits! I never get hungry."
Bess Harding is the Co-ordinator of Epsom Medical Equipment Fund, a charity which raises money for Epsom Hospital. She said: "Patients often tell me how pleased they are with the food at the hospital. There's an excellent choice and patients can also select whether they want a large, medium or small portion.
"Firm favourites include the fish pie, chicken korma and the chocolate chip pudding!"
Nick Gorvett is Director of Corporate Infrastructure at the Trust. His team look after the catering service, serving hundreds of thousands of meals each year. He said: "Being in hospital is never nice. As well as being unwell, patients miss their home comforts, including home cooked meals. As you can imagine, we serve hundreds of thousands of meals each year and do our very best to make sure they're as good as - if not better - than what people would get at home."
"The results of the survey clearly show that the vast majority of our patients are happy with the food they receive whilst in hospital. Of course, we cannot be complacent and will now try and improve even further on these good results."
The results were based on a survey of 593 patients between July and September 2008.
