Innovation seals hospital catering award for Serco

Company’s improved service wins national recognition

A hospital catering company has won a national award for its work to make meals better for patients and visitors.

Serco has worked in partnership with the East Kent NHS Trust (EKHUFT) to improve services offered at hospitals such as the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford.

The Hospital Caterers’ Association (HCA) presented Serco with the 6Cs Award and said the company had beaten competition from other trusts because of improvements made since 2012.

Among the changes was the introduction of buffet-style finger food for patients with advanced dementia who may not be able to use cutlery.

The company also introduced a picture menu to make it easier for patients with difficulty in communicating, ward housekeeping to take meal orders and a ward kitchen to enable meals to be cooked closer to the patients.

Trust nutriti on matron Wendy-Ling Relph said: “We are delighted to have our efforts recognised with this prestigious award.

“The national judging panel were so impressed that they plan to visit east Kent in order to share our innovations with other hospitals across the country.”

Serco director Phil Mitchell said: “I would like to thank all those involved in patient catering for their hard work in helping us to achieve this accolade.

“We take great pride in providing high-quality patient catering services and meeting individual needs.

“Nutritious food is vital to patients’ recovery and we have collaborated with the trust, public and patients to improve our overall service.”

The trust and the company celebrated their award at the ceremony in Liverpool earlier this month.

Smiles all round after Serco won a national award for catering at hospitals across east Kent