From plough to plate--an NHS first?

A recent Soil Association survey saw nearly a third of the 1,000 patients questioned about the food they had received during a recent hospital stay report that it was so bad that, at times, they could not recognise what was on their plate (HEJ - September 2011). The resulting report, however, also commended a number of healthcare organisations which had put considerable time, effort, and commitment, into providing first-class patient meals, often at negligible extra cost, and using high quality, locally sourced produce. One NHS Trust pioneering such an approach, while simultaneously boosting the fortunes of local farmers and other food producers, is Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, which, HEJ editor Jonathan Baillie discovered, is now not only being held up as a national exemplar of good NHS catering practice, but has also recently had the go-ahead for a new pound 2.2 million catering facility.