Episode 1 Operation Hospital Food with James Martin

Every year the NHS spends around £500 million on hospital food

but it's reckoned that almost half the patients refuse to eat it

because they find it inedible.

Mashed potato, what's wrong with the mash then?

You could hang wallpaper up with it.

I believe that everybody deserves to eat good food.

To me, there's nowhere where food is more important than in a hospital.

It's estimated that the previous government

spent more than £50 million on failed initiatives

to change the food on our wards.

Scarborough General Hospital is up for change.

For the next three months, I'm working alongside the kitchen staff

to try and make a difference.

Pat, I'm trying to help you.

-I know you are.

-Everything's out of a tin, everything's out of packet -

everything. All the veg are frozen.

But there's also a personal reason why I want to take this on.

I watched my grandmother pass away in hospital

and, and she was a huge influence on me in terms of food and...

and teaching me about food.

To watch her suffer

and to watch her eat the stuff that was served in the hospital,

it wasn't fantastic.

The only way to change it is to actually physically

get off your backside and do something about it.

I've been given exclusive access to Scarborough General Hospital

which provides healthcare for the Northeast of Yorkshire.

More than 40,000 people are admitted each year

and they all need to be fed.

I've never really sort of seen behind the scenes in

a working hospital. I'm assuming it's like a,

like a hotel kitchen...ish.

The kitchens at Scarborough are run by catering manager Pat Bell.

I've worked here in Scarborough Hospital for nearly 21 years.

Previous to that, I was deputy catering manager

in Southampton General Hospital.

Good morning, it's Pat here from Scarborough Hospital.

We have to cater for the whole spectrum.

Not everybody's going to like everything so the choices that

we put on the menu we hope will appeal to a wide range of people.

Pat is supported by a loyal and dedicated team, many of them have

also been there for over 20 years and include head chef Sharon Ellis,

Alan "Big Al" Rosbottom

and budding young chef Darren Glover, known as "Big Bird"

to his colleagues.

James Martin, I mean he's familiar to most caterers.

He's got a lot in common with the staff here

that work at Scarborough Hospital.

He went to Yorkshire Coast College

where a lot of them have trained as well.

We have such a rich environment round in Scarborough, you know,

great fish, great producers.

I know the people in the area.

I know particularly how good the local food is.

I think we're very proud that a local person has done so well

and wants to come and work with us.

I've catered for thousands of people a day but this is

definitely the hardest challenge that I've ever done.

So I'm feeling nervous, apprehensive, um...

Why did I ever say yes to this?!

'Before I go into the kitchens, I want to hear from the people

'that matter the most - the patients.

'It's their opinion that really counts, so I head straight

'to the Maple ward to talk to some of the long-term patients.'

What do you think of the food you've had cos you,

you've been here six months, you must have tasted everything.

Yeah, I have, yeah. It's not good.

-I appreciate that it's difficult cooking for all these people.

-Hmm.

-I would just like it to be better and taste better.

-Yeah.

I mean, yesterday we had roast pork and apple sauce, carrots and cabbage,

but the cabbage, the carrots were cooked within an inch of their life.

-Yeah, right.

-And the mashed potatoes,

-I don't really know what had happened to them.

-Right.

-You know?

-The only criticism I could make is the size of it,

they feel a bit like kids' meals to me.

As a package it's pretty poor.

Vegetables wet and soggy.

Mashed potato - you could walk across it

and custard the same, you know?

It's lumpy and, well, you could walk across that as well.

Is this you, cauliflower cheese?

Yes, that's right.

-Cauliflower cheese and side salad.

-Yeah, yeah.

I just don't like the mashed potato and that cuts out the other things.

I mean, if I can have, I'd have mashed potato probably,

sliced beans and carrots.

-So why didn't you have it then?

-The potatoes just,

I don't like it at all.

Mashed potato, what's wrong with the mash then?

You could hang wallpaper up with it.

OK.

When you swallow it, it seems to go down in a big lump.

'Independent surveys as far back as 1963

'consistently conclude that the NHS hospital food is

'neither appetising nor nutritious, which is hardly surprising when you

'discover that as little as £1 a meal is being spent.'

'I've been given the opportunity

'to make a difference here at Scarborough.

'My first task is to win the hearts and minds of the hospital staff.'

Feel a bit like a new boy starting school,

you know, for the first time.

Apprehensive, nervous.

I do feel like I've just started a new job.

But, well...

I suppose we, we give it a go, don't we?

Is Pat around, or... You're Pat are you?

Hiya James, nice to meet you.

Welcome to Scarborough Hospital, nice to see you.

-Let me introduce you to Sharon my head chef.

-Hi, pleased to me you.

-Hello Sharon,

-are you all right?

-Fine thank you.

-And how many meals come out of here a day?

-Over a thousand.

-A thousand meals a day.

-And who decides the menu, you?

-Yes.

And how much have we got to spend?

We have a patient meal allowance of £3.49 per patient per day.

-And that includes...

-It's a lot then, innit?

-Yeah, all three meals.

-Three meals.

Three main meals, all their beverages and biscuits that we give them throughout the day.

-How many full-time chefs have we got, in here?

-12.

-12?

-13 with me, yeah.

Right, OK.

'I'm beginning to understand the challenges they're facing.

'They're producing a huge volume of meals here, with just over

'£1 per patient, per meal and they have to do all this

'in a kitchen that's not exactly state of the art.'

And all this kit works then, does it?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Are you sure?

-Yes, it all works.

-Right, when was this machine made?

Where's the... Where's the coal go into it?! Bloody hell, look at that thing.

You don't use... Do you still use this?

Yes, yeah.

Like many other NHS hospitals, Scarborough rotates

its menus on a three week basis.

This means that every day for 21 days the patients are offered

a new menu to choose off for both lunch and dinner.

This results in the kitchen staff cooking over 100 different dishes per menu cycle.

That's today's patients' menu.

-This is it, yeah?

-That's today's lunch menu.

Shepherd's pie,

-so D is diabetic, R is reducing. What's that for, reducing what?

-Weight.

Give them a side salad, love. That's what...

F. But F, you've got low fat as well.

Yeah.

OK. 'Already I can see some conflict brewing with Pat.'

-Margarine.

-Yeah.

-Polyunsaturated.

-But that's bad for you.

No. Polyunsaturated margarine which is better for you than butter, James.

-Can't be.

-Which we know that you like your butter.

And it's better than butter.

Please tell me we'll have butter instead of margarine, because if not I'm going to

-take you where it's made and prove to you that margarine's bad for you.

-All right then.

-Have I got my work cut out then?

-You sure have.

He's taken the mick out of my equipment here in the kitchen already and he'd only been here ten

minutes and he wants to put butter on the menu so I think we're going to have a bit of a fight on our hands.

'It's day one and I've already identified one area I want to change...

'as the menus are rotated on a three week basis, the kitchen team end up

'cooking a staggering number of different dishes.

'No wonder there are grumblings from patients about quality.

'I need to find a way of simplifying things.

'But before I can change anything I need to understand the whole process.

'The kitchen staff have been in since 6am preparing and cooking today's lunch.'

-It's now half past ten.

-Yeah.

When does this get eaten?

It leaves the kitchen at quarter past 11 and it gets to the wards any time round

about 12 o'clock and after that, you know, the different wards get it different times, obviously.

I'm amazed that you make food and it's made at 10.30,

and then it gets boosted to temperature again,

no wonder it's rotten when it gets to the... It's...

You see it's difficult explaining to somebody that's just walked in that, you know, how we actually work and

it sounds like we don't know what we're doing really, but obviously we do.

But you know, until he gets up on to the ward and sees the meal being

presented to the patient then he might get some idea of how it works.

'I'm still getting my head around how this kitchen functions,

'so I think the best thing to do is follow today's lunch as it heads up to the wards.

'This is the moment that the whole morning has been building up to.

'There are around 300 patients all waiting for their lunch.

'First, the catering staff portion the food before placing it into a hot cabinet.

'The food is then held in here until it's time to be transferred

'into insulated boxes that go up to the wards, one box per ward.'

-What does this mean?

-These are all the names of the wards that we have.

-What you have a ward called Stroke?

-There's a stroke unit.

-Oh, right.

It's going to be changed.

We'll have you on it by the end of the week.

I was going to say!

They'll put the food into the trolley.

-Yeah.

-They've put it on a cycle for 15 minutes so it's at 120 degrees.

'Once the food has been superheated to the right temperature,

'it's then put on to a trolley and plated up for the patients.

'Every year the NHS spends around £500 million on food.

'Lunchtime should be one of the highlights of a patient's day,

'but from what I've seen, this food may be fine when it's freshly cooked

'in the kitchen, but by the time it gets to the ward a few hours later, it's pretty unappetising.

'But I think we should be viewing foods served on hospital wards as a medicine.

'A report in 2000 on the NHS, found that 40% of patients

'are malnourished in hospital and one in ten would have a shorter stay if the food was better.

'I believe the food they eat should be setting the standards and provide

'them with a template of what

'they need to be eating when they go home.'

-And once you've done this?

-Yeah.

What happens to all this?

They're thrown away.

Any left gets disposed of, can't be reused cos it's been out on the ward.

-So anything that's not eaten.

-So gone,

-thrown away?

-No, yes, once it goes off the ward,

it'll go down a waste disposal unit, anything that's left over.

You can't eat it, nothing?

Nothing...it's thrown, everything.

I was shocked to find, you know, and you saw, you know,

40% of what we served today for lunch, just goes in the bin.

Now you times that by 18 wards, times by how many hospitals are in the UK.

That's a tremendous, tremendous amount of food that just goes to waste that nobody...nobody eats.

-Yeah.

-And this happens at every hospital, every ward,

every hospital around Britain.

It depends on the type of ward that you've got.

I mean, we're in acute hospitals, you have more people coming in and out,

there's more people going into theatre...

-Yeah, it's difficult to cater obviously for numbers.

-So cos,

a consultant come on the ward this morning and make five

-patients nil by mouth, while we're portioning up the food downstairs.

-And that's it.

-So you, you've got to have a certain cut-off time.

-Absolutely.

-Where can you say. Well, we can't.

-But it's still... it's still 35% of it.

-There was a lot left.

There was a lot there actually.

'The patients order a day in advance and although I understand the need for a cut-off time for the food to

'leave the kitchen, I'm horrified at the amount of taxpayers' money

'that's literally going into the bin.'

'Alex Jackson works for Sustain, a campaign group that has consistently lobbied for an

'improvement in hospital food and is particularly concerned about the high levels of waste.'

Now over recent years, there's been over 50 million quid spent on government-funded initiatives

to try and employ, you know, in, increase the quality of the food,

why do you think it's not worked?

Well, I think it's really simple.

As you say, the Government's spent over £50 million on

gimmicks to improve hospital food and yet in 2007, 50,000 people were still

dying in the NHS with malnutrition.

The Government spends two billion quid of our money, every year on food that's served in public institutions,

including hospitals, but also including schools,

the armed forces, government departments and prisons too.

So the Good Food For Our Money campaign wants to improve food wherever it's served

in public institutions and paid for by the British taxpayer.

They must know there's a problem otherwise they wouldn't be spending

the money doing these sort of things.

-They recognise there's a problem.

-Yeah.

But they're not doing any substantial to, to solve it.

What we actually need is to have regulation so that these things can't go by the wayside any more.

'Sustain has called for compulsory hospital food standards

'across the board, but the Health Minister,

'Simon Burns, believes responsibility

'lies with each individual NHS Trust.'

'For me to be able to improve the food at Scarborough General Hospital

'I need to discover what ingredients have been used,

'and where they've been sourced from.

'The hospital is surrounded by some of the finest and most fertile farming land in the UK,

'and the fresh produce from here is fantastic.

'But like most NHS Trusts,

'those with the purchasing power aren't looking

'on their own doorstep.

'Pat's order books have all the evidence I need.'

270 pints of semi-skimmed in every day.

60 pints of full cream in every day and then, probably round about...

I mean it's a big five-star hotel.

70 dozen yoghurts a week.

Yeah, budget for just for the dairy.

-Yeah.

-OK. Where does this come from?

This comes from Normanton.

'Normanton is over 70 miles from the hospital.

'Surely there's somewhere closer in a rich farming area like this,

'but the dairy product supplier isn't the only surprise.'

And the fish, where does that come from, cos we're right by the coast? Where's that?

Some of it comes from Somerset.

Some of it comes from Bradford.

Well-known place near the coast, Bradford.

'I can't accept that it's not cheaper to source products locally,

'so what are they actually buying?'

Lot of soup here.

Well, we have to use 14 flavours of soup a week cos we

have one on at a lunchtime and one on at supper time every single day.

We've got our basic tin provisions, so tinned tomatoes, chopped tomatoes, plum tomatoes, beans, tin of tuna,

-spaghetti hoops we use for the creche in the children's ward.

-OK.

And then we've got a canned fruits, this side, so.

Is it the reason why we have tinned fruit is,

is it for any reason, or not?

Well, we have to have fruit on the menu every day but we use tinned fruit,

we only use tinned fruit in natural juice, we don't use it in syrup.

-Yeah.

-Cos then it caters for the patients who are on special diets.

So whips that we have, cold sweets,

so they'll supplement our menus

and they're suitable for diets as well.

So are the dieticians happy with this?

-Yes.

-Really?!

Yes.

If they weren't it wouldn't be on the menu.

Now I reckon your buying power is probably ten times more than any chef I know.

-Right.

-How much are you spending a year, if you don't mind me asking, on food,

-a year?

-Nearly half a million.

-Half a million quid?

-Half a million,

roughly, on provisions.

That's a lot of money you get to spend, isn't it?

'I don't think Pat realises just how strong her purchasing power is.

'And what a difference to the local economy she could make by buying locally.'

Right and out here, James, I've got my outside freezer.

Looks like an air raid shelter, look at it.

Well, it works anyway, it's freezing in here. OK. What's up here?

We've got omelettes up here.

-Omelettes?

-Omelettes.

-In a freezer?

-In a freezer.

-I've never seen...

-You've never seen a frozen omelette, James?

-No.

-And how much are these?

-I think they're about 25 pence each.

-25p?

-Yeah.

-Most of the veg that goes on to the menu as a vegetable, stand-alone vegetable.

-As a veg?

-Is frozen.

Right, well I'm off, I know I'm a Yorkshireman but it's too cold in here.

-You're a wimp, James.

-Freezing.

Everything's out of a tin, everything's out of packet,

everything. All the veg are frozen,

all the soups ready-made, all out of a packet and apparently they put two

packets in to make it taste better.

He's just taken the mickey out of the frozen omelettes

that I buy in, so I've challenged him to make 150 omelettes,

get them out to 18 different wards,

all fork service at the appropriate time in each ward, either 12 o'clock for lunch or six o'clock for supper.

I think that one's going to be an interesting one and I think it's

going to be the biggest omelette challenge that he's ever seen.

'Another day, Pat!

'Let me get over the shock of that frozen omelette first

'and the amount of processed food used in here.'

How can that possibly be good for you?

You see, they've got butter in here.

It's...it's in here but it's rare as rocking horse poo on the menu.

HE SIGHS

We shall see.

You cannot, cannot tell me

that freshly made soup is not better for you than that.

It's not possible. At the end of the day soup, I guarantee you it's quicker to make a soup.

I will do it, I'll prove a point.

'I'm starting to formulate my plan to transform the food here at Scarborough Hospital.

'Already I can see the need to simplify the menus by reducing the amount of dishes they cook,

'and focus on quality rather than quantity.

'I need to look at how to reduce the incredible amount of wastage on the wards.

'And I want to win over the hearts and minds of the staff

'and get them to cook fresh ingredients from local suppliers.

'But any changes I make to the menu will have to go the hospital dieticians for their approval.

'They need to analyse new recipes to ensure they have

'the correct nutritional content and balance for the patients.

'So I need to get Rachel Bumby on my side.'

So Rachel, you're the dietician at the hospital, there's not just you, there's eight of you here?

Yeah, there's eight in our department.

Right. And do... Your main role is what?

As a qualified dietician we translate scientific information about

food into practical dietary advice.

Food, I always think is a medicine.

You're going to look at this as a medicine, I'm assuming as well.

Yes, food's a vital, vitally important for the healing process and

is an essential part of any patient's treatment.

This is currently on the menu, though. And I'm pretty shocked

that this sort of stuff gets through.

There's restraints with any budget and I think we do the best we can with the resources that we have.

I think the main goal is to get rid of the stuff that we've got here

and if I can replace it, keep it under cost, it's got to be,

got to meet your criteria more than this.

From my, my perspective, my aim is to make sure that the menu is suitable

for all of our patients who have a wide variety of nutritional needs.

Now, this menu's not changed, I believe, for nine years.

I'm about to change it, we've got three weeks.

The process that we have to go through is once we've got

your standard recipes, we actually go through each recipe and analyse each section using a computer programme.

We can't do anything without your approval really?

-It normally takes a number of weeks for us to be able to do that.

-Right.

However, because things have deadlines we're going to be

splitting it up and having a go each.

So that's good news, I need to get cracking. I shall do my best.

'But before I make any drastic changes,

'I need to sort out some of the basics.'

Frozen beans take a minute to cook.

They've been in there about ten minutes.

How you doing, you all right?

'There's limited cooking from scratch going on,

'which must be a frustration for a highly skilled kitchen team.'

The old boy there cooking the beans, the hotels where he's worked

is amazing, you know?

He's spent most of his life making fresh soup and preparing fresh veg and,

and cooking it.

And then he gets here and he's just putting frozen beans in a boiler

and cooking it for ten minutes.

'What's crazy to me is the perfect solution is right under our nose.'

They've got a piece of kit in there, it's worth about ten grand,

that is the best bit of kit in the kitchen to cook anything in.

And it's not worked for ten years. And it'll cook,

literally a tray of raw carrots in about 45 seconds.

It's brilliant and it's not a microwave, nothing.

It's superheated steam, it'll keep all the nutrients in there.

It's a brilliant, brilliant, brilliant way of cooking.

So we need that to work.

The NHS doesn't throw money at catering departments like

a lot of the big hotels and, and restaurants do.

So I think it has actually been quite an eye-opener for him this morning,

-to see what equipment we have to work with.

-Deal, I'll do you a deal.

-Yeah, go on then.

-Right?

-Yeah.

If we achieve what you want, what you want and what I want,

and we all leave here with a smile on our face, I will buy you

a brand-new machine to replace that.

Aw, James. Aw, that's nice.

And that's coming from a Yorkshireman, that.

'I've only been here one day and there's been a huge amount to take on board.

'The first thing I want to tackle

'Pat about is simplifying their inefficient 21-day menu cycle.'

I know that the menus last for three weeks, there's a three week cycle...

but are people really staying here three weeks and do really

people mind having a different choice every day for 21 days.

Are you really bothered with that?

'In fact the average length of stay is only four-and-a-half days, so I want to reduce the menu cycle

'to just one week, but it can only happen if Pat gives me her full support.'

I really do genuinely believe a weekly menu works.

I think a week is pushing it, James.

I really, really... Trust me.

-OK.

-Plus points is less ordering.

-Yeah.

-Less waste,

-better value.

-Yeah.

Cos you'll get, you're buying in bigger, bigger quantities, better, you'll get a much better cost.

You'll know exactly your food costs, much more regularly, and you

can fluctuate that because of the seasons and everything else.

And you can change the menu more often.

I think the fresh vegetables that we make, we make our own soup.

So all I'm asking is weekly, make our own soup and veg,

that's it for the moment, nothing else.

Well, I'm going to put your argument over to the rest of the team.

-We have got a reputation for our hospital food.

-Yeah.

And it's been good, right? And I don't want them to feel...

I know your reservations, I realise that.

I'm trying to help though. I'm not... I'm not trying to criticise.

-No, I know that.

-I'm not trying to criticise.

I don't want them to feel that though, because I think what

they will come back and say to me is,

"He's only been here a day and he's going to chop the menu in two."

I'm not. I'm not on about... I've been here a day, I'm not on about.

-I'm trying to make it easier for you.

-I know you are.

-You've got... You've got hardly any equipment.

-I know.

All right, I will come here and I will work, and if I've got to make

bloody omelettes, I will make omelettes.

I will help you as much as I can.

And I'm trying to make it easier for you.

But what I don't want them to feel, cos after today you've been in today,

is that he's come in, you've agreed Pat to chop two thirds off the menu.

I need to break that to them gently to say this is what we want to do.

-Right, OK. I'll...

-Do you see where I'm coming from?

What about offer them two weeks first, then?

But I think that might be easier to accept.

OK, I agree with you.

-Deal?

-Deal.

-Hug?

'I know I'm asking Pat to implement big changes to her kitchen.

'I want her to simplify the menus and start cooking with

'more fresh ingredients, so I need to demonstrate to her

'that it's still possible even on her limited budget.

'Here in London I'm hoping a visit to a centre of excellence

'will open her eyes to see what can be achieved.'

So I'm here, right here in the centre of London at Brompton Hospital.

Now this place has won countless awards for their food

and I for one am intrigued about how they've done it because they still keep within their budget.

They've only got 1p a day more to spend than they have in

Scarborough, but they've managed to do organic, local produce.

They try and get at least a third of their produce from a 50-mile radius around London.

When you think about London prices,

in particular for food, it's going to be a lot more expensive

than it is in Scarborough.

So I can't wait to find out

and, hopefully, Pat and Sharon will enjoy it too. So fingers crossed.

'Well, as Pat and head chef Sharon make their way down here,

'there's still only one topic of conversation.'

A one week menu I think is just far too risky.

Yeah, that's too drastic,

-I think, isn't it?

-Well, I think so.

'Pat is still sticking to her guns

'but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this visit will help my cause.

'The Royal Brompton is a rarity amongst hospital trusts.

'They believe that their patients deserve good nutritious food

'to make their stay more pleasant and aid recovery.

'A specialist heart and lung hospital,

'it treats up to 300 patients at any one time.

'Pat's equivalent is Mike Duckett.

'Although he has pretty much the same amount to spend per patient as Pat, he uses fresh local ingredients

'and cooks everything from scratch on site.

'He can afford to do this by supplementing his budget with the

'profit he makes from his successful on-site public restaurant.'

So, are you looking forward to it?

'I think Pat and Sharon can learn a lot from this model, so I'm hoping Mike will be able to inspire them.'

-Welcome to the kitchen, ladies.

-Thanks.

And the kitchen is based on a hotel kitchen, so here we've got

the pastry section and Louis our pastry chef makes all the pastries, sponges that sort of thing.

So today he made the apple flan

and he's, at the moment, making the scones for the afternoon tea.

-Oh, they look nice, don't they?

-They look good, don't they, girls?

They do, yeah, very good. So how many staff have you got, chefs-wise?

Chefs, we've got nine with the head chef.

'I think Pat was expecting more than that.'

And we have our own chiller unit.

30% of what we purchase is either local, organic,

or is local to the Southeast.

-It would be nice to have our own veg fridge, wouldn't it?

-Yeah, that size, yeah.

'Rather than from a chiller,

'most of Pat's vegetables come from a freezer.'

This is the pasta boiler we use for our vegetables so they're blanched then taken out.

-There's nothing worse that overcooked vegetables.

-No, there isn't, no.

OK, this is our chiller and 50% of the milk we use is organic.

We use free-range eggs as well, because they're much nicer to use.

-Yeah.

-And we use butter for cooking...

and our patients benefit from that as well.

So cream goes into our soups.

At the moment, Pat doesn't use any organic products and all of her eggs come from caged hens.

We don't use any of the tinned or powder soups because they're just

flavoured water really,

there's no value in those at all, absolute waste of time, yeah.

-I haven't prompted him to say anything!

-No!

I know you're looking at the packet of margarine, but that's not...

I was looking at sunflower spread portions at the top there, James.

It's fine, but the ethos as it is, I think what we, what I wanted you

to come here and see, particularly with Mike,

his whole ethos of fresh ingredients.

-Ingredients, yeah.

-We can still do it under budget, we can still do that.

It's just how it works and how we generate other income from other things, to help you out really.

Yeah, yeah.

'The food we've seen in the kitchen is impressive, but how impressed are the patients?'

-Hello, guys, how are you?

-Good, thank you.

You are looking surprisingly fit and healthy, look at you all.

-We're all here.

-Now, tell me a little about the food here.

Now if I mention hospitals and food,

-everybody just looks at me with this blank expression.

-Not here, it's the best.

You have been in other hospitals before. How does this place differ to the others?

-It's fresh, good variety, if you don't want what you've asked for they change it.

-Yeah.

-You know, very good.

-It's just like real food.

-Yes.

Real food, as in food that you would cook at home?

Yeah. Well, yeah, food that you'd cook at home, food that you would probably be happy to pay for.

What I'm trying to do, they've got,

what they've got is a three week menu cycle.

My argument is you can't remember what you had last Tuesday.

No.

-No.

-But would it really matter to you whether the menu,

same dish was once every three weeks, two weeks, one week?

Not really because there's a choice of three or four things

so you don't have to have the same thing every Monday.

-You'd probably appreciate to have something that you'd liked again.

-Yeah.

You'd remember that, you'd say, "Oh, that was nice, I'll have that again."

'The hospital kitchen also supplies food to the on-site restaurant

'which generates a very healthy income stream.

'It has more than doubled in the last ten years to a staggering £1.2 million,

'and any profit it generates goes straight back into the kitchens.

'Something that's definitely worth looking at, at Scarborough.

'The food here looks amazing but does it really live up to its reputation?'

But that looks absolutely gorgeous and I'm going to dive into my Welsh lamb.

And I'm going to put my butter on my bread.

How many have you got?

Three. He's done that on purpose.

-I have paid for it.

-He's done that on purpose.

But you must get people come in here

-to eat though.

-Yeah, we try and encourage as many people in Chelsea

to come here because it's taxpayers' money, you know?

Yeah, and at the end of the day the more customers you get, the better profit you make.

Asparagus soup.

Oh, that's gorgeous.

Today's made me feel like we do need to change a few things, even though we do get positive feedback at the

hospital, but we could make that even better, improve things more.

So, yeah, I'd like to turn the menus round a little bit.

We both had the same patient meal cost so it was interesting to see what he was using.

There's things that we can change on our menu, virtually instantly.

The staff menus were quite intriguing really

and they had the show with the chef carving the meat and whatever.

That was lovely to see

and we'd love to do something spectacular like that at Scarborough.

'Inspired by a trip to the Royal Brompton, I think Scarborough is

'really missing a trick with its own restaurant.

'It caters for both staff and visitors but, at the moment, it's not attracting many customers.

,Only around 25% of staff actually eat here and most visitors don't even know it's open to the public.'

There are no signs advertising anywhere to go,

so I presumed there wasn't anywhere.

If I knew what was on the menu, cost,

and where it was.

A lot of us do tend to go over to the baguette shop because you get more of a selection, the

baguettes are a lot nicer than normal plain sandwiches now and again, so.

'A high number of staff use a local baguette shop instead of

'spending their money here in the hospital restaurant.

'But I think with simple marketing and providing the staff and visitors with a better choice,

'by my calculations, the hospital restaurant could potentially make £1,500 per day.

'I just need to persuade Pat and her boss Richard Vincent, to consider some changes.'

If I put a big blackboard there,

with "daily" put it with chalk on there,

you can have a lovely tureen of soup in the background, home-made soup.

And we'd address this salad bar.

-Yeah.

-And let's go for stuff like couscous salads.

-Yeah.

-You know we'll spice up the couscous salads.

And what I'd like to do on here,

I'd like to do a roast every day. Are you happy with that?

I like the idea of a carved roast cos I think it's a show piece, yes,

I think that's really, really nice.

This then becomes a restaurant,

it doesn't become just a place for staff to eat.

It becomes somewhere that,

because I believe this is probably the only place that we've got to generate

-a good income.

-Yeah, yeah.

'The food that's served here is the same as the patient's menu, but does it taste better?'

Well, there we go, I've had my lunch and...

yeah, it's what I expected really, I suppose.

'A simple baked potato with packet sauces is hardly a meal.'

The dessert, I was really looking forward to that cherry Bakewell

and then they smothered it with this sort of glow-in-the-dark custard with the skin on it.

This really is a shop window for everything that we do and progress forward, and it's the only place

where we can generate income, to get the equipment fixed, to serve better food and everything else.

So we've got to make this look a little bit more appetising than what it is here.

And then, let's face it, to have a restaurant that's named after a

hair-lipped Viking is not really a good start, is it really?

'I've spent a couple of days at Scarborough General Hospital

'and it's now becoming clear to me which issues need to be addressed.

'There's a complicated and inefficient menu system.

'Far too much food is being thrown into the bin.'

-And once you've done this...

-Yes?

-..what happens to all this lot?

Thrown away.

Whatever's left is thrown away.

'Not enough local seasonal produce making it on to the menus.'

Everything's out of a tin, everything's out of a packet -

everything. All the veg are frozen.

'And with the limited budget to work with, we really need to create our own revenue stream.'

I believe this is probably the only place that we've got to generate a good income.

'I've come up with my five point plan which I hope will lead to change.

'Simplify and improve the menu.

'Reduce wastage. Win the hearts and minds of those on the front line,

'cook with fresh ingredients from

'local suppliers and generate an income from the restaurant.

'But I still feel that Pat is apprehensive,

'especially going down to a one week menu cycle.'

How has it gone down with the staff, or haven't you told them yet?

I've discussed it with Sharon.

-Right.

-Head chef.

How does she feel?

She feels similar to me about going drastic to one week.

She'd be quite happy to go down to two.

I still think two's too much.

Can I try and explain this to your staff, where I'm coming from?

-Yes, OK.

-Right, let me try and explain it.

The first thing I walked in here, you guys are doing an unbelievable job.

The amount of people that you serve with the equipment that you've got,

-it's phenomenal. You've been working for how long in the catering industry?

-30 years.

-30 years.

-40.

Going about seven or eight years now.

So you've got 80 years' experience between you all.

This is a three week menu cycle that you've had on.

Now, I know Pat has her reservations over it and I'm pretty sure you probably might do.

Now, what I'm trying to bring to the party

is that if we reduce the menu cycle down,

I want to go to a week.

I don't think that's a good idea, maybe a fortnight,

but when you've got patients in for several weeks at a time.

Right, right, have you spoken to the patients?

-No...

-Hold on a second.

You've been here 20 years and you've not spoken to a patient.

They can't remember... Can you remember what you had last Tuesday?

-No, probably not.

-So what the hell are we doing, putting dishes on and thinking about a three-week cycle?

The idea is we don't want people coming in here and living in here,

-we want them to get better.

-Yeah.

So they only way we can get better is that medicine's improved, in the

last 20 years that's the reason why people's stay has shortened.

Now, I think the food has stayed back 30 years ago.

How often do you change your three week menus?

We never do, they haven't been changed for about ten years.

-Yeah about nine, yeah.

-Nine years?

Right, if we keep a weekly menu cycle and change it three times a year we can then get fresh veg.

We can buy better deals on stuff,

at a cheaper rate, so you're going to be doing fresh soup.

-All packet soup's banned.

-Yeah, I like the idea of that, actually.

-Yeah, and we'll do fresh soup.

So, why don't we do it? Why don't we try it?

There are still a substantial amount of people that are in for fortnight, three weeks...

These people, these people are ill,

they don't... You're fit and healthy, you're stood upright,

you might not be when I'm finished with you.

But you're stood upright and you're telling me that

-you can remember what you had for the last seven days.

-No, probably not.

So, you're telling me that them lot in there have the same food?

-I disagree with you.

-I probably am stuck in ways.

Cos you've been here 20 years, not once in 20 years have you gone out

-there and spoken to the customers.

-No, I don't get the opportunity.

-Is that cooking?

-No.

-What do you want?

-I want fresh, proper soup, I wouldn't mind doing that whatsoever.

And if I'm saying to you the only way we can do it is seven days,

do you want to go there?

Now, if we go two weeks you use that. What do you want to do?

I'm all up for a bit of change cos I do think it needs it, when it comes to certain dishes on the menus.

You were asking me earlier that

compromise on two weeks. It's gone from that now, it's down to one.

Cos I've slept on it.

Aye.

INDISTINCT COMMENT

I've slept on it.

It'll be great guys, honest to God, it'll be great.

-Well, you've got my support then.

-It'll be great.

-Convinced?

-I'm convinced about the fresh thing and I'm willing to try the weekly thing.

Now I can go to sleep.

I haven't said yes yet.

'Next time, Pat's cupboards come under further scrutiny.'

Where does that fish come from?

-Erm.

-Don't say the sea.

'I get to grips with the task in hand and send Pat back to basics.'

We've got a loose one, Pat, go on.

'And it's time for the team to face hard facts.'

But that's...that's the realism

of what the patients are eating.

Go on, everybody's got to eat it.

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