Thumbs up for new hospital food menu

A MENU shake-up is delighting patients who are staying on wards at Leicester’s hospitals.

The line-up of dishes changes every six months and now new options have been introduced as part of the autumn winter schedule.

The new meals are cheese and potato pie and lamb and lentil stew, all provided by caterers, Steamplicity.

Marion Cockeram, general manager of facilities at Leicester Royal Infirmary, said: “Every six months the menu is updated and the new autumn and winter menu has 20 hot choices.

“Patients get the menus two hours before meal times and can choose what they want. As well as the main menu there are many other options for people with special requirements, allergies, gastro problems and people about to go into surgery.”

The refrigerated Steamplicity meals are wheeled up to the ward kitchens in big cool boxes and cooked in microwaves.

But by cooking them in special sealed containers the raw ingredients are actually pressure steamed, rather than being just microwaved.

Each sealed dish has a valve on the top like a pressure cooker to regulate the cooking and the cooked dish is then placed on a plate and served.

Steamplicity’s national account manager John Harvey said: “It’s a unique system and it’s something we’re really proud of.

“Our company serves six million meals each year across 26 NHS trusts and we’ve been doing it for almost 13 years.

“Almost anything can be cooked like this and vegetables and raw fish work particularly well. We love a challenge but we haven’t found any dish yet we can’t do.

“And we constantly listen to the feedback we get from hospitals and patients to provide what they want. There are plenty of stories in the media about the quality of hospital food but we tend to get a very positive reaction to our meals.”

Before being offered to patients, samples of some of the hot meals are served to ward housekeepers in the restaurant at Leicester Royal Infirmary so they can taste what the patients they care for would be eating.

One of the domestic team leaders, Sharon Cartwright, tried the cheese pie and the salmon. She said: “The pie is really nice and the younger ones will really love that.

“The salmon is a nice bit of fish. After 30 years working here I think the food is better and there’s more choice.”