Bedside manna
Tending to guests at a luxury hotel in sun-drenched South Africa may seem to some infinitely preferable to looking after the culinary welfare of patients in a Cheltenham hospital. But Laurence Parkman has given up the bustle of the Sandton Sun to devote his skills to 28 patients as hotel services manager of the Cotswold Nuffield Hospital in Cheltenham.
While the location couldn't be more different, the aim of both jobs is the same. Both want to provide five-star standard service - one for hotel guests, and the other to hospital patients.
The Cotswold Nuffield is one of 34 private units run by the Nuffield Hospitals Group in the UK. Parkman joined the hospital at a time of change for the catering facilities - a major attraction when he was considering a move out of hotels.
In January 1994, the responsibility for catering and hotel services, such as housekeeping, cleaning, maintenance and gardening, switched from contract to in-house caterers. "The company wanted to create its own image by having more control over the standards of its hotel services," says Parkman.
Parkman took up his position in November 1993, several months before contract caterer Sutcliffe moved out.
Most of the hotel services managers who were appointed have a similar, solid hotel background to Parkman, a sure sign that Nuffield is serious in its intentions to achieve a high standard of service in all its hospitals.
Prior to Parkman's four-year stint in South Africa, he had worked as deputy general manager at the Unicorn Hotel in Bristol and senior assistant manager and personnel manager at the Great Danes Hotel, Maidstone. He completed an HND in hotel, catering and institutional management in Cheltenham in 1979.
Parkman has put his experience to good use, and in his 16 months at the hospital has overseen a rise in the standard of housekeeping, including an upgrade of the bedroom furnishings and a switch to a new laundry supplier, as well as initiating new signposting through the hospital and improvements to the gardens.
But it is within the catering department that Parkman has notched up the biggest achievements. Menus have been revamped to provide a more interesting selection of dishes but still take into account the dietary needs of the sick.
"In particular we want to be able to provide long-stay patients with the opportunity to be wined and dined, so long as their illness or condition permits it," says Parkman.
"The highest compliment that a patient can pay me is to say that the food here is as good as they would get at the Queen's Hotel - Cheltenham's best," he adds.
Classic dishes such as beef Wellington and steak au poivre provide something special for long-stay patients.
Menus change daily and run on a seven-day cycle for three months. As well as providing around 100 meals a day (breakfast, lunch, afternoon tea and dinner) for patients, the kitchen caters for the hospital's 100 staff and patients' guests.
The latter is a market that Parkman wants to develop. The hospital currently serves up to about 20 visitor meals a week. Visitors eat with patients and are charged £8.40 for a three-course meal, chosen from the patients' menu.
Another breakthrough is the range of alcoholic drinks on offer. "It allows patients to ensure their stay is as normal as possible, although it is only made available with the agreement of the medical staff," says Parkman.
The catering team - four full-time chefs and six general catering assistants - are given an average of £4.50 to £5 per patient per day to spend on food costs. This works well as long as most of the patients do not order steak, but as they are all likely to be at different levels of treatment, this does not usually happen.
The figure compares more than favourably with NHS hospitals where the average spend on patients' food is around £12 per week for all meals.
Parkman is enjoying the challenge of catering in a hospital environment. "There are many similarities between what we do here and what I would have done in a five-star hotel, the guests just happen to be a little more debilitated and I have had to get used to a certain amount of medical terminology. But basically I am still responsible for servicing a 24-hour operation, as in a hotel."
Parkman admits that he misses the fast pace of a large hotel. But he adds: "I do feel that this is compensated by the fact that having gained 15 years of work experience in hotels, I'm now gaining useful experience in hospitals."
His commitment to hospital catering is evident. He is undertaking the one-year Institute of Health Service Managers certificate course, attended by hotel services managers in both NHS and private hospitals. The luxury of the Sandton Sun couldn't be further away.
