Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust have won a prestigious national award at this year’s Hospital Caterers Association presidents’ dinner.
The Catering Service Team at Gosport War Memorial Hospital scooped the Hospital Catering Team of the Year award recognised and voted for by fellow professionals. They were praised for their effective teamwork, delivering high-quality catering services and user satisfaction. The catering staff have excellent food safety knowledge and has always achieved a food hygiene rating of 5 (meaning very good).
Andy Mosley, Associate Director of Estates Services “I am very proud of the catering team who work 365 days of the year to ensure our patients and staff receive the very best choice of nutritious food. Southern Health’s catering team very much deserve this prestigious national award. To win this award is a real recognition how hard the team work at Gosport and when it is awarded from fellow professionals it makes it a greater achievement”.
Not only have they maintained this high standard but have also been working with dietitians and specialists such as speech and language therapists to deliver safe and nutritious meals to meet all our client’s needs. They have co-created guides around food textures and menus which work better for patients experiencing swallowing difficulties.
Dietitian Pepa Richardson is impressed how patient focused the team is, always working to provide a great culinary experience, introducing new dishes and consistently tasting and improving recipes, whilst keeping an eye on improving the nutritional value of the menus or provide modified diets for those with special dietary needs.
The Central Production Unit Gosport team prepare 700 meals daily. They are a cook freeze unit that cater across the Trust’s estate covering 14 units and delivering 3 times a week around Hampshire. They can cater for complected special diets within 24 to 48 hours thus making sure the patient can eat as normal as soon as possible. The Head Chef visits the wards to see the service to the patients and spend time with them to complete catering feedback forms, so they know how clients are rating our food and they involve all staff at ward level. The team have also launched the new bedside meal ordering system across the Trust.