Contractors slow to gain foothold in hospitals

In-house hospital catering teams are proving strong defenders of their territory against private contractors trying to get a foothold in the sector, a report reveals.

More than 85% of catering units in hospitals have now been market-tested, a study by the Worshipful Company of Cooks Centre for Culinary Research found. But private contractors have won only 17% of these and are faring particularly badly in the largest hospitals.

"In-house contractors have managed to hold on to 83% of the contracts that have so far been market-tested and nearly all hospitals with more than 1,000 beds have retained the contracts in-house," researcher Jenni Ervin told Caterer. "Private contractors have proved most successful in medium-sized hospitals with 300 to 600 beds."

The research also found that most hospital caterers - 67.9% - are sticking with conventional cooking systems, while 25% now use cook-chill systems and 4% have introduced cook-freeze systems.

Cook-freeze systems are proving cheapest for hospitals, resulting in an average spend of £1.32 per patient per day, with conventional systems costing an average of £1.66 and cook-chill systems £2.12.

The report pinpoints staff as the biggest threat to quality of food and patient satisfaction. Nearly 70% of hospitals use porters rather than catering staff to deliver meals to wards and 68% use nursing staff to serve them.

"Often food is not the top priority for these staff and trolleys are left sitting and food becomes cold," said Ms Ervin. "In hospitals where catering staff actually delivered and served meals the service was quicker and meals were hotter."

The report, Hospital Catering 1995, can be obtained by phoning 01202 595579. It costs £50 for hospitals and educational establishments and £70 for those outside the sector.