Hospital caterers should act now
The Hospital Caterers Association (HCA) held its annual shindig in Brighton last week - conference, dinner, AGM and lots of partying, it was all happening on the South Coast.
The conference discussions and the debates between delegates in the corridors covered the usual subjects. Has the Better Hospital Food (BHF) programme delivered results? Should patients pay for food? Who should serve the food? Should the food be prepared in-house or bought in cook-chill? Questions, questions… but not many answers - and one can't help wondering what progress has been made in the year since the last HCA conference.
That sounds harsh, and I suppose, given that significant progress has been made in the past four years, 12 months of catching breath could be forgiven. The debate about hospital food has remained in the open; the BHF programme, led by Loyd Grossman, continues to raise the profile of the issues, and it is generally agreed that the standard of food has improved in most NHS regions.
But the successes - like most in the NHS - are the result of individuals or individual hospital departments going the extra mile and making the system work, rather than the system working of its own volition. There is still too much fragmentation and inconsistency across the country. And there is also a lack of leadership within government and, arguably, among hospital caterers themselves.
This is not to say that all the talking hasn't been beneficial. Communication has improved, and there is clearly more liaison between suppliers, caterers, nursing staff, doctors, dietitians and patients and between NHS trusts than before. In fact, in the foreseeable future, trusts may begin to overlap their areas of operation and even consider merging. If this is the case, consistency will begin to develop faster than it is now.
[Stop! Wait. That's the answer: merge the trusts region by region until there is just one trust covering the whole of the UK and call it… I don't know… the National Health Service, providing common standards for all. Just a thought.]
In the meantime, there is an obvious case for driving the hospital food debate harder over the next 12 months; seizing the moment and cashing in on the momentum of the BHF programme.
And the HCA should be at the centre of the action. Precisely because of the fragmentation of the sector, the association has an opportunity to become a louder voice, a force to be reckoned with, providing a central focus for advice, guidance and communication on a national level. That way, hopefully, next year's HCA conference will provide more answers than questions.
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