MANAGING the production of 1,700 meals on a daily basis with an annual budget of £1.2million means the hospital’s catering department has to be run meticulously with no allowance for waste.

The number of hospitals with their own on site production kitchen is declining due to the cost of equipment and maintenance but in Salisbury, everything, from the purchasing of food and processing of invoices to the cooking itself and washing the dishes, is carried out by the catering team.

Employing around 50 members of staff, the kitchen team includes nine chefs and 13 catering assistants with the earliest shift starting at 6am and the latest finishing at 9pm.

Supporting local growers and suppliers, the team prepares meals fresh each day with menus created from the results of patient feedback.

Each day around 1,200 meals are made for patients and about 500 for staff and visitors. And, unlike some hospitals, the food served on the patients menu is also presented for sale in the hospital restaurant.

Head of Facilities Ian Robinson said: “There is a two week menu cycle and the food is seasonal so the menus change completely every three months. In creating the menus we rely on patient surveys and talking directly to patients.

“We work with patients in the spinal unit who tend to have a longer hospital stay and experience the full menu cycle. We also work with our colleagues in speech and language therapy, dieticians and our nursing teams.

“The menus are not written around our convenience but around what patients want to eat.

“We think a good acid test is that the food has to be good enough to sell to the public and we are very proud that when you come to our restaurant, you see the same food prepared for our patients available for sale.”

In addition to the general hospital menu, there is also one for children (meals are adapted from the general menu), one for weakened immune systems, one for those with food allergies and one which contains soft food for those with difficulty swallowing.

Kosher and halal meals are brought into the hospital as preprepared although demand is not that high.

“Around 85 per cent of our patients order off the general menu,” Mr Robinson says. “We spend about £2.80 per patient, per day, not per meal. Given the economies of scale, we use our purchasing power to get the keenest price and we have very good procurement.“It’s tight – we do a lot with the money we are given.”

Catering assistants, who also work in the Springs Restaurant and Hedgerows Cafe on site, deliver copies of menus the day before and nurses hand out menu cards appropriate to the patient’s diet.

“We pick the menu cards up by 10am each morning,” Mr Robinson said. “It’s pretty close to meal time.

We scan them in and produce the production schedule for the chefs.

“Up until then they have been working blind. They come in at 6am and begin cooking based on the historical uptake of that menu. At 10.30am they get the actual figures of what’s required and then the meals are despatched at noon.

“The beauty of having a restaurant following the same menu is that if we produce too much food, that’s sold in the restaurant, or if not enough, the restaurant will sell alternative food. There is absolutely no waste.”

Mr Robinson started out as an NHS chef and says there are good career opportunities for those interested in catering.

“Hospital catering has in the past had quite a negative reputation which has put people off thinking of it as a career which is disappointing and we need to fight against that negative image.

“Anyone coming to see the kitchen in operation will see a modern well equipped production kitchen, similar to a large hotel – with the benefit of more sociable working hours and career development opportunities.

“Many of us started working for the NHS in more junior roles, the opportunities to develop your career, gain new skills or tackle new challenges has helped many staff to progress their careers.”