Hospital Trust offers catering tour

GRUBS UP! Hospital Trust offers catering tour

The Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust is inviting the public to a special ‘behind the scene’ tour of its catering facilities at North Manchester General Hospital, The Royal Oldham Hospital and Fairfield General Hospital in Bury.

The free tours will be held on Thursday 17 May, between 10.30am and 12.30pm.

Each tour will give visitors an insight into the hospital’s catering departments.

The Trust catering service is an ‘In-House NHS Operation’ and operates 12 hours per day, 365 days of the year, employing around 200 full and part-time staff.

The Trust provides over 1.5 million meals a year which equates to feeding 1350 patients three meals a day. Meals are also provided to patients at Manchester Mental Health and Social Care Trust, Bury Primary Care Trust and the hospital onsite children’s nurseries.

The service provides patients with a multi-choice menu that is delivered three times a day on the hospital wards. Staff and visitors are also offered the same service with food served at the on-site restaurants.

Special diets are provided for patients who need a therapeutic diet for medical reasons. The Trust also offers menus for special diets including modified texture diets, gluten free, no added salt, low potassium and sodium for renal patients, allergy free and low residue.

In addition, the Trust caters for patients who eat a special diet for cultural or religious reasons. This includes meals for Halal diets that are prepared externally under strict conditions and approved by the local Imams. These dishes are available on the normal menu for all to choose.

The Trust also offers a special Kosher menu offering a full range of hot and cold items that have been prepared under the supervision of the Manchester and London Beth Dins and are Kedassia approved.

Pam Miller, Associate Director of Facilities at the Trust, in charge of catering, said: “Our catering departments aim to provide a variety of high quality meals which are responsive to our patient’s individual requirements.

"We cater for a wide range of diets, age ranges, client groups and try to encourage patients to eat and to keep hydrated in order to aid their recovery in hospital.

"We are very proud of the service our department provides and all of the staff who work conscientiously to ensure each patient receives the food they need at each meal time.”

To book your place on the catering tour contact Angela Greenwood stating which hospital you want to visit.

ft.membership@pat.nhs.uk
01706 517302