Catering team recognised at prestigious awards

The catering team at St Andrew’s Healthcare were recently shortlisted at the Hospitality Assured Awards - held in London - in recognition of their consistently high standards and commitment to delivering delicious food for patients.

The Awards were devised to celebrate outstanding organisations within the Hospitality Assured community that focus on customer centric culture, highlighting and rewarding those who shine in the area of quality and excellence.

The catering team at St Andrew’s deliver high quality catering services for a diverse group of patients with complex mental health needs. Every day, the team keep nearly 900 patients and our staff fed and watered, with all meals are cooked freshly within eight local kitchens. The shortlisting highlights the team’s dedication to continuous improvement and development.

One area of excellence at St Andrew’s is the development of the Dysphagia kitchen, which provides textured modified meals for a group of patients that have swallowing difficulties. The team recognised that patients deserve to have dignity when dining and have for some time moulded the food to make it recognisable and presentable. The standard internationally available moulds are aimed at elderly patients with small appetites, but St Andrew’s patients required larger portions; so the team found a mould maker and commissioned bespoke moulds in order to deliver a better portion size and improve the calorie intake of the patients. This has resulted in some seriously vulnerable patients putting on weight and improving their physical health.

Gareth Waters, “While we are finalists and not winners this time, I am very proud to be part of this great team. We were in such great company with awards going to the Ritz Hotel to name just one. Today we launched a new care catering qualification and again St Andrew’s is leading the way being the first organisation in the country to take this on. Thank all the team for their hard work.”