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Catering facilities for visitors at the hospital.

Posted By Wiggers42

"Catering facilities for visitors at the hospital."

About: Royal Cornwall Hospital (Treliske)

(as a relative),


The catering facilities at The Royal Cornwall Hospital is really not a great experience for relatives or patients in the hospital and I would be surprised to hear that staff think is is good. 

Why are the facilities not open 7 days a week until at least the end of visiting times? Why does the main restaurant shut at 4pm? I think this is pointless and frankly in this day and age a joke. And your two coffee shops run by mitie also shut at 6pm? Why?

By 2pm on the days I was there I found that the facilities had very little in the way of sandwiches or any kind of actual decent food available until closing times? 

The Royal Cornwall is a large hospital serving a large area and can be very busy visiting hours are not until 4pm or 6pm so why do your catering facilities not stay open until 8pm for example, many hospitals have excellent catering operations that offer good quality food and beverages I feel that a hospital should be promoting healthly well balanced food not loads of cakes etc and are open to 8pm covering visiting times. Over night there is nothing but chocolate and crisps except one vending machine in tower block reception which has what seemed to me like left overs from your other outlets and is frankly nasty. 

Can you also explain why numerous members of your catering staff in the restaurant and cafe areas think is good food hygiene practice to eat on the counters , be using their mobile phones and telling customers they will be there in a moment? I come from a catering background and whilst they may well be reasonably friendly sometimes the attention to hygiene, food safety and general good practices in a food handling environment was quite shocking especially in a hospital! You seriously need to address the standards of working practices in your cafes on site as they are very poor and certainly let down what is an excellent hospital.  


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Responses

Response from Jess Saunders, Patient Engagement and Feedback Coordinator, Patient + Family Experience Team, Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust 5 years ago
Jess Saunders
Patient Engagement and Feedback Coordinator, Patient + Family Experience Team,
Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust

Submitted on 12/09/2018 at 14:43
Published on Care Opinion at 14:48

picture of Jess Saunders

Dear Wiggers42,

Firstly, please may I apologies for the delay in responding to you on here. I am sorry to read that your experience of the catering facilities here at the Royal Cornwall Hospital was not a good one.

I am replying to you as a member of the Patient and Family Experience Team, but I will contact our colleagues from Mitie to pass on your comments and ensure you get a response directly from them. I would like to thank you for taking the time to share your story with us.

Best wishes,

Jess

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Response from Claire Billing, Complaints Officer, Patient Experience, Royal Cornwall Hosptials NHS Trust 5 years ago
Claire Billing
Complaints Officer, Patient Experience,
Royal Cornwall Hosptials NHS Trust

Submitted on 19/09/2018 at 15:02
Published on Care Opinion at 16:54

Dear Wiggers 42,

We are sorry for the delay in responding to your queries, it seems that your comments may have taken longer to get through to us than expected.

Many thanks for your feedback regarding our catering facilities and I am sorry that we haven’t lived up to your expectations. In answer to your observations regarding the staff they are held to high standards, if you have observed something that should not be happening then please ask for the manager or supervisor and report it and it will be investigated and action taken where necessary. We take any reports of poor behavior seriously.

In regards to our opening times our Ingredients restaurant is open 0700-1600 Monday - Friday and 0800-1600 weekends. The Trelawney coffee shop is open 0700-1900 mon-fri and 0800-1600 at weekends. Our opening times are based on when most people want to use our services but we remain open to increasing the hours if customers are interested in using it - stand by for an opportunity to register your interest!

If any of our facilities have been closed during these times there will have been a reason. There has been a recent occasion where there had been a maintenance issue and though this is an inconvenience for which we apologise, we have to ensure the safety of all of our customers.

In terms of the food available we cater to the times that most of our customers want to eat, but we are reviewing the times that hot food should be available, again based on demand. We always try to ensure our portion sizes are adequate. If you visit us and find otherwise please let us know and we will try and help.

Most of the vending machines are restocked on a timetable by another company but fresh produce is always used for the machines operated by Mitie.


With kind regards


On behalf of Ian, Catering Manager Mitie

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