1. For the most recent three financial years (14/15), (15/16) and (16/17) please state what the cost of providing food to patients was at your trust per patient per day?

Food Costs for Heart of England NHS Foundation Trust consisting of Heartlands, Good Hope & Solihull Hospitals

2014/2015 Patient Food Cost = £3.81 per head, per day (this figure does not include labour, non pay costs such as disposables, crockery and cutlery etc. or dietary supplements etc)

2015 /2016 Patient Food Costs = £4.03 per head per day (this figure does not include labour, non pay costs such as disposables, crockery  and cutlery etc. or dietary supplements etc)

2016 /2017 Patient Food Costs =  *£3.70 per head per day (this figure does not include labour, non pay costs such as disposables, crockery  and cutlery etc. or dietary supplements etc) *The last 3 months to the end of March 2017 have been estimated based on average figures  due to unavailability of data

2. If you have a figure please state what percentage of food in the most recent financial year (15/16) and (16/17) was returned untouched by patients?

We do not hold this information.

3. If you have an outside caterer that is responsible for supplying food to the Trust, please state the name of the company and how much it was paid by the Trust in (15/16) (16/17)? Also state what level of involvement these outside caterers have? For example do they just provide the hospital with ready meals that are then distributed by Trust staff or are the caterers responsible for providing and serving the food?

All patients feeding for the Trust is provided by in house Trust staff and cooked fresh at a central production unit based at Solihull Hospital and delivered to Heartlands and Good Hope Hospitals daily.

4. In the 2016 calendar year please state how many complaints you logged from patients, or their relatives or friends, or hospital staff where either the primary concern or a secondary concern related to the provision and/or quality of the patient food?

During the calendar year 2016 we have produced in excess of 609,000 meals we received a total of 11 complaints.

5. In relation to Q.4, which month saw you have the most complaints about food and how many complaints were logged?

There were 3 complaints received from patients in December 2016

6. For the month identified by Q.5 (if more than one month has the same number of complaints then take the most recent month) please provide me with redacted copies of the complaints so to not breach S.40 of the Freedom of Information Act, but include the name of the hospital involved. If the original correspondence has been destroyed then please provide me with a detailed (two sentence) summary explaining the specific nature of the complaint, including the name of the hospital.

See  Attachment 1

7. In the last full financial year (15/16) has the Trust paid compensation to a patient or their family following a complaint about the provision/quality of hospital food? If so how much was paid and why was it paid? Have any complaints about hospital food been referred to the NHSLA.

No compensation has been paid in relation to hospital food. Complaints are not referred to the NHSLA