Patient survey rates RJAH hospital food as best in the country

The Catering team at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital are celebrating after the food they produce and serve has been highlighted in a national patient survey as the best in the country.

A total of 1,245 patients who stayed at the Oswestry-based hospital for at least one night during July 2018 were asked to take part in the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) Adult Inpatient Survey and 834 patients completed it.

The survey, which includes 144 NHS acute trusts in the country, reveals what nearly 77,000 patients said about the care they received during their time in hospital.

Questions included ‘how would you rate the hospital food’ with respondents asked to give a mark out of 10 and RJAH came out on top with an average score of 7.9.

Selected patients were also asked ‘how good was the choice of food’ – scoring an even better result of 9.5 out of 10.

Dan Hoggett, Catering Manager, said: “High quality and nutritious food is essential for patients during their time in hospital and the whole team work extremely hard to ensure that’s exactly what they get.

“I speak on behalf of the whole department when I say we’re extremely proud of the food we produce. These results, as well as feedback we receive from patients, make it so rewarding.”

The team have come out on top in the survey for the quality of the food produced for 13 out of last 14 years.

Phil Davies, Head of Estates and Facilities, said: “This is the fourth year running that our food has been voted best in the country by our patients, and we couldn’t be more thrilled.

“We work closely with the dietician at the Trust to ensure our menus are healthy and we use high quality and seasonal ingredients wherever possible.

“This result is really a testament to the team and I am immensely proud of them all.”

Overall, RJAH was named as one of eight NHS organisations placed in the top band of Trusts delivering results that are considered “much better than expected” and also “much better” in both medical care and surgery.