in brief

Hospital tests

Glasgow's Southern General Hospital is to test a scheme allowing patients to order their meals by computer.

The initiative, which is the brainchild of Paul Stanton, the hospital's restaurant manager, is intended to cut food wastage, saving thousands of pounds.

Patients on three wards will for the next month use a hand-held computer when they choose their daily meal, instead of filling in a traditional menu card. It is hoped the scheme can be rolled out across all wards later in the year.

Chutney Mary bid

Groupe Chez Gérard looks set to lose its management contract for Chutney Mary, the Anglo-Indian restaurant in London's Chelsea.

Echowalk, a founding partner in the venture with Chez Gérard, has offered to buy out other shareholders. If the offer goes ahead, the management contract, which was worth £40,000 in the last financial year, would end on 15 April.

Echowalk and Chez Gérard each own 25.5% of the holding company, Chelsea Plaza Restaurants, with 49% held by BES investors.

NVQ's fail to score

Research into national vocational qualifications by the Institute for Employment Studies found that more than half of all employers are not interested in offering them to staff - up from 35% in 1993.

expansion exercise

Bodysgallen Hall in Llandudno, Gwynedd, will next month open a health and leisure spa.

By Easter it will also have opened seven new cottage suites, bringing the total number of bedrooms to 35.