Grossman calls for national standards to harmonise hospital meal production

Conventional cooking in hospital kitchens may soon be a thing of the past as more hospitals buy in their meals from production units.

Loyd Grossman, honorary patron of the HCA, said the NHS had to act more like a commercial business to establish nationwide consistency of meal quality. "We need to take a lesson from people like Marks & Spencer and go to the market with a single specification for, say, shepherd's pie."

Some delegates lamented the demise of conventional hospital kitchens, but Paul Cryer, head of hospitality services at NHS Estates, said: "It's a matter of practicality. The NHS serves 700,000 meals a day. We don't create enough chefs with a willingness to work in the public sector to cope with that, and ready-meal food technology has moved on enormously. Money saved from cook-chill and the reduction of staffing levels should be put back into care costs."

Outlining the future of the Better Hospital Food programme, Grossman said that hospital food was improving but described progress as "very steady". The 20 most popular "Leading Chef" dishes had been identified, but variations in the quality of their production needed to be ironed out.

Grossman urged NHS employees to build stronger, more trusting relationships with suppliers and private contractors such as Sodexho and Medirest.