Awards on the menu at Oswestry's orthopaedic hospital after its food is voted best in the country
A Shropshire hospital has been cooking up a storm after being voted best in the country for the food it serves.
The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH) at Gobowen, near Oswestry, was voted top in a national patient survey for its catering.
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” in both medical care and surgery.
It has made the top spot for the quality of food for the 13 of the last 14 years.
Of the 1,245 patients who stayed at the specialist hospital for at least one night during July 2018 asked to take part in the Care Quality Commission’s (CQC) Adult Inpatient Survey, 834 patients completed it.
Questions included ‘how would you rate the hospital food’ with respondents asked to give a mark out of 10.
The Orthopaedic came out on top with an average score of 7.9.
Selected patients were also asked how good was the choice of food. The hospital scored 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.”
Head of Estates and Facilities, Phil Davies, said: “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.”
