HOSPITAL food, like airline meals and school dinners, might conjure up images that do not exactly get your appetite racing.

But chefs working at the hospitals trust around Morecambe Bay have well and truly stepped up to the plate, and recent patient satisfaction scores are the proof in the pudding.

ANNA SMITH visits the kitchens at Westmorland General, Kendal, to find out more.

FORGET soggy sandwiches, lukewarm lunches and gravy that has seen better days, because a team of chefs at the Morecambe Bay hospitals trust are on a mission to dish up food that would pass muster in the hotels and restaurants of South Lakeland. 

Good grub, I’m told, must be the cornerstone of any patient’s recovery, and a decent meal is the least they should be able to expect. 

“We’re feeding the local community,” said Keith Fort, hotel service manager at Westmorland General Hospital (WGH).

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“That’s what this hospital was built for - to serve the community. It’s something I’m proud to be doing.” 

At WGH there are usually 101 in-patients requiring meals, plus those attending clinics. 

Visitors also sample the hospital kitchen’s food in the Westmorland Byte restaurant, where they can have the usual favourites, plus Eastern-inspired noodles or fish and chips on Fridays. 

Typical meals served to patients include lamb and apricot pie, curry or roast beef with Yorkshire puds, with three full-time chefs, three part-time chefs, several catering assistants and a porter ensuring everything comes together. 

On a tour of the kitchens, Keith explained that all cakes and desserts are freshly made or baked on site. 

Around 80 per cent of meals are cooked from scratch in the vast kitchens, while the rest, such as sandwiches, is transported from either Barrow or Lancaster. 

But Keith is working hard to get that figure up to 100 per cent. 

“I’ve been a chef for 30-odd years. I’m a chef by trade. So I want to see the kitchens operating at full capacity, with every meal or item made fresh, from scratch, here on site. We’re almost at that point.” 
Last week the hospital trust was roundly praised by patients, staff and a health watchdog for its high standard of food. 

The NHS report highlighted wards at Westmorland General Hospital and Furness General Hospital (FGH), Barrow, for being some of the best in the north west for the choice and quality of grub. 

“We’re very pleased with the results,” added Mr Fort, who was previously head chef at the Lyth Valley Hotel. “Serving decent meals to patients must aid their recovery.” 

The report shows that the Langdale ward at WGH received a food quality score of 96.67 per cent, while the Dova Unit at FGH received a score of 96.43 per cent.

The scores came in as part of a wider review of all English hospitals. 

Overall, all three hospitals run by the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Trust, including Royal Lancaster Infirmary, achieved at least a 92 per cent rating in the survey. 

WGH head chef, Amanda Iley, said she was ‘pleased’ with the scores her kitchen received. 

“We’ve had a lot of nurses saying it’s nice serving food that looks like proper food!”  

“We don’t get a lot of waste back, which is also great.” 

Patient, Betty Foxcroft, 78, from Lancaster said: “I’ve been here seven weeks so I’m something of an expert.

The choice of food is great and it’s always hot. I think it must help that we’re eating well.” 

John Boon, 66, from Kendal, said: “When you go to hospital you understand you’re not going to a Gordon Ramsay restaurant. 

“You hear some horror stories about hospital food. But it’s been lovely. It always tastes good, but healthy and balanced too.” 

Now the NHS will clamp down on hospitals whose food has fallen below standard, and has brought in five legally-binding food standards. 

Patients must be screened for malnutrition, given a food plan, get help with eating and drinking, if needed, while staff must promote healthy diets. 

Barry Rigg, head of hotel services at the Morecambe Bay hospital trust, added: “Treating nutrition and food hygiene as an important aspect of patient safety is not only better for the patients but it also helps prevent prolonged hospital admissions, poor health, and higher costs to the NHS nationally.”

WHAT'S ON THE MENU AT WESTMORLAND GENERAL HOSPITAL

Soup 
Homemade pea and ham 
Leek and potato 
Cream of carrot 
Cream of vegetable 

Mains 
Chilli con carne 
Mushroom stroganoff 
Beef balti 
Vegetable cottage pie 
Vegetable chilli 
Lamb and apricot pie 
Fish and lemon with mushy peas 
Roast beef and Yorkshire pudding 

Puddings 
Syrup sponge and custard 
Apple crumble 
Eve’s pudding 
Fresh fruit