- For the two past financial years (2015/16 and 2016/17 to date.), please provide the following data, breaking it down month by month:
a. The number of inpatient main meals requested in the Trust
Please see Attachment 1
b. The total cost of providing inpatient main meals
Please see attachment 1
c. The cost of feeding one inpatient per day
Please see attachment 1
- Please name the catering companies and food suppliers used by the Trust in 2015/16 and 2016/17 to date
Please see attachment 1
- Please provide details of what changes, if any, the Trust has made or plans to make to inpatient catering and food procurement contracts with suppliers and/or catering companies in response to rising food commodity costs.
The catering department has reviewed the menus for the staff restaurants and changed from bought in products and main courses to producing dishes in the central production unit. The Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust in conjunction with the University Hospital Birmingham Trust is working with procurement to secure a new managed vending machine contract. New food suppliers to the Trust are procured through the national framework and price and quality form part of the criteria.
4. Please state whether the Trust currently meets the following Government Buying Standards for food and catering services: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/418072/gbs-food-catering-march2015.pdf
There are 39 impact areas to be considered in order to meet the required standards. The Central Production Unit (CPU) are currently STS accredited (Solution Training Systems) Certification number – 10081366. This enables us to supply Chilled Meals to the wider NHS and market and assists in meeting the requirements of the Government Buying Standards.Patients are also requested to complete a questionnaire asking a series of questions regarding overall quality, temperature, portion size and service etc. this information is used to improve quality and is taken into consideration when reviewing the menus.
We are working towards achieving the Soil Association Bronze Award for Food for Life which will assist us in meeting the requirements of the Government CQUIN for Catering and health eating and will also address some of the areas identified below in from the Government Buying Standards
The areas where we do not fully meet the requirements are listed below.
- Production standards – red Tractor 37. Paper products
- Traceability 38. Ethical trading
6. Eggs – free range
7. Environment
14. Cereals
22. Ethical Trading
23. SME’s
26. Snacks – 30 gm not available
27. Confectionary
32. Recycling 72%
34. Energy Efficiency
35. Waste – Exception coffee shops
5. Please state whether the Trust currently uses or has made plans to use the provisions in the Government Buying Standards that allow an authority to depart from mandated production and/or animal welfare standards to avoid a “significant increase in costs”. If so, please set out the date this decision what taken and the details of what was decided.
The Trust does not currently have any plans to depart from the mandated production and/or animal welfare standards.
