Catering Department

Introduction

The catering departments at Gloucestershire Royal, Cheltenham General and Delancey Hospitals provide an average of 3,600 patient meals every day, and 750 staff and visitor meals. All meals are freshly cooked and produced within an atmosphere where high standards of hygiene are demanded and are consistently practised. The Trust is committed to Gloucestershire Food Vision and to purchasing local produce wherever this is practical and cost effective.

Catering Service to Patients

As a patient you are served three meals a day. Patients choose their meal from individual menu cards the evening before. Some wards at Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal Hospitals operate a system of ‘real time’ choice where patients choose what they would like to eat when the food is delivered to the ward.

Menus are based on the NHS Plan ‘Better Hospital Food’ guidelines. Each menu offers nutritional and tasty food suitable for a range of special and textured diets and portion sizes. Any patients with social or cultural needs will be offered a separate menu.

If you have a special dietary requirement you should let the nursing staff know and they will notify the Catering Department or refer you to the Dietitians Department.

A selection of drinks are served with each meal. Drinks are also served to you on the wards first thing in the morning, mid-morning, mid-afternoon and late evening.

What kind of meals are provided by the hospital?

The meals offered to patients are changed on a daily basis. There is always a choice of main meal which is served in the middle of the day, plus a vegetarian option and a choice of desserts.

The supper menu, offered in the evening, is also changed daily. For supper patients can choose to have a light meal, a salad or sandwich, plus a dessert – whatever you fancy.

Here are a sample lunch menu and a sample supper menu, so that you can see the kinds of patient menus we provide:

Staff and Visitors Catering

Each hospital has its own restaurant which is open to all staff, patients, visitors and general public. A wide range of hot and cold meals, snacks, sandwiches and refreshments are served throughout the day. The restaurants are signposted at each site.

Each hospital also has vending machines in the main restaurants and throughout the site. Reception or Ward staff can tell you where to find them.

Women’s Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS)

The Womens Royal Voluntary Service operate a drinks and snacks service at both Cheltenham General and Gloucestershire Royal Hospitals.

The location and opening hours of the WRVS service is as follows:

Working for Us

The catering department operates seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, 12 hours a day; we have a large team that help us to provide this service. As a result, we are always looking for reliable bank staff to help support them, and sometimes permanent opportunities arise.

We advertise in the local press and on our website www.jobs.nhs.uk (see Link below). We offer flexible working hours, very good rates of pay in a dynamic and stimulating environment. If you would like to be part of this, feel free to contact the Catering department on 08454 22 4493 or 08454 22 6154 at any time.

• Gloucestershire NHS Jobs
  

Your Views

Food Survey

In June 2005 we asked 1000 patients what they thought of the meals and service we provide. We did this so that we could make adjustments and improvements to the service where they were needed.
The survey covered 10 key elements of the service and results were generally good.

Comments from our customers are always welcome. Please write to:

General Manager, Catering Services
Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust
Cheltenham General Hospital
Sanford Road
Cheltenham
GL53 7AN