Hospital meals (FOI)

Request

A

Could you explain how staff estimate the number of needed hospital meals for patients?

B

Could you please list the number of hospital meals binned every day and the cost of doing so for the last three years?

Response

A

The inpatient provision utilises a two week cyclical menu. The patients are provided a menu choice on a daily basis which patients choose from 24 hours in advance of the meal being consumed by the patient (to ensure appropriate dietary needs are being met for the patient and the food is produced).

Menus are collected and collated by the Facilities Management team from the patients and then forwarded to the Central Production Kitchen where appropriate quantities and selection of food is produced and sent to the patient. Staff can order additional meals if there are greater number of patients on the ward.

B

The central production kitchen produces approximately 14,800 meals per week or approximately 770,000 per year. These figures are produced using our catering software, which captures total number of meals produced from the menu choices of our patients on a daily basis.

There has been a programme of work in place over the last few years to implement the patient menu system and this has significantly reduced the amount of wasted food. Daily waste level has reduced from 40% to 13% and the total amount of meals wasted has reduced by 81% with the implementation of patient ordering.

* The Health and Social Services Department does not hold accurate information requested for 2015 and 2016 as the information system used now was not in place. The figures quoted are extrapolated from a five week audit carried out in 2013 and therefore are estimates only.