Cafe set to reopen at Shropshire's specialist orthopaedic hospital
The charitable group supporting Shropshire's specialist orthopaedic hospital is set to reopen its cafe next week.
The League of Friends at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital (RJAH) is planning to reopen their main entrance coffee shop on Monday.
The popular coffee shop, which had to close in March in line with government regulations, will be open again for takeaway only with new revised opening hours – Monday to Friday from 9am until 4pm.
The venue will offer up its usual selection of coffees and teas, plus cold foods including salads, sandwiches, pasta pots and fruit, as well as cakes and other sweet treats.
Victoria Sugden, League of Friends charity director, said: “We are delighted to reopen our much loved coffee shop, working in collaboration with RJAH staff to make this happen.
“We will be serving cold foods and hot drinks while Denbigh’s will be focusing on hot meals for staff. This will help elevate the pressure on existing services and allow for greater social distancing too.
“Sadly we are unable to welcome back our usual volunteer staff at the moment but we are enormously grateful to the hospital’s catering team for stepping in for now.”
Safety measures will include staff wearing PPE, hand sanitiser stations, floor markings reminding customers to social distance and barriers highlighting a one-way queuing system.
Staff working in the shop will also only be accepting contactless payments.
Sian Langford, deputy facilities manager, said: “Working together is what we do best at RJAH and in conjunction with the League of Friends we are able to reopen this service for the benefit of patients and staff.
“While customers will notice some visual differences we hope it will be a welcome place to get refreshments. All precautions have been taken to ensure everything is in place to meet safety standards.”
Stacey Keegan, acting chief executive at RJAH, said: “It is great that we are now in a position to reopen our coffee shop. We have seen an increase in the number of visitors coming to our site in recent days. Some of them have come a long way to be with us, so it is pleasing that we will now be able to give them the opportunity to get a hot drink or a snack.
“I am grateful to our League of Friends for making this possible and to our catering team for their support as well. This is just a little bit of normality, which I am sure will hugely benefit our patients, our staff and other visitors.”
