Better Hospital Food, "Food and Healing" Conference, 21 January 2003 # London
Better Hospital Food, "Food and Healing" Conference, 21 January 2003 – London
Over the last ten years lifestyles and expectations have changed significantly – not least when it comes to our eating habits. The public has shown that they want to see significant improvements to basic care services in the NHS – things such as food, cleanliness, privacy and dignity and these have been made important parts of the NHS plan and subsequently the NHS performance ratings.
The framework for improvements to food services were set out in the Better Hospital Food Programme which was launched in May 2001. Since then much has been achieved and over 100,000 patients every day can now obtain food around the clock, are provided with two new snacks each day and benefit from new and tastier meals. However, it is also recognized that there is the need to ensure that the improvements achieved so far are used to take-forward further modern and responsive services that patients will appreciate.
Given the importance of this issue, a national conference was organized to share with NHS trusts and primary care trusts what has been achieved around the country, the benefits that patients are enjoying and the advantages of improving food services that impact on satisfaction levels and costs of this.
The conference, which was designed for board-level representatives (chief executive/director of finance/director of nursing) and non-executive directors,was split into two themes dealing with issues such as:
“protected mealtimes” – ensuring the environment in which patients receive their meals is right;
opportunities for alternative or “off-ward” dining;
the role of housekeeper in relation to food services;
the balance between choice, quality and cost;
modern matrons and their contribution to food services;
the links between nutrition, costs and patient care;
the responsibilities of doctors in the area of nutrition.
