July 3, 2008
NHSG/53/08
PHOTOCALL: 60 years of the NHS in the north east
You are invited to a photocall at noon, on Friday, July 4, at RoyalCornhillHospital, Clerkseat main building.
NHS Grampian chairman David Cameron will cut the first slice from one of 230 celebratory cakes which will be distributed to staff, patients and visitors at wards throughout the north east, on its official birthday, Saturday, July 5, to mark 60 years of the NHS.
For the photocall, NHS Grampian catering staff will assemble a mosaic of 32 of the cakes, each with the NHS 60 and NHS Grampian logo, at the catering department in the Clerkseat building at RoyalCornhillHospital in Aberdeen.
Mr Cameron will be joined by members of the catering team.
If you wish to attend Friday’s photocall, please contact Marka Rifat at NHS Grampian Corporate Communications, on 01224 554400.
Background:
Ruaraidh MacKinnon, Catering Manager: “We are providing 230 cakes, produced by one of our local bakery suppliers, JG Ross, Inverurie. This will give around 7,000 patients, visitors and staff a piece of iced, jam and cream sponge cake at our 25 hospitals across the north-east, on our special birthday.”
Over the decades, catering for patients has developed substantially, with NHS Grampian using a multi-disciplinary team to constantly check and improve on the food offered. The team includes nutritionists and speech and language therapists as well as nursing staff. Feedback from patients – comments from surveys and meetings with individual patients – contributes to menu reviews, and there is regular monitoring and auditing of the catering service.
“We feed some 5,000 patients across Grampian every day with a choice of options for breakfast, lunch and supper,” says Ruaraidh. “We work hard on catering for patients with special dietary needs too. For example, we have developed a range of nutritionally enhanced and tasty meals to suit patients who have swallowing difficulties, with portions appropriate to their nutritional needs. At the Children’s Hospital, a dietitian specialises in the care of children with cancer and these young patients, whose treatment can affect their sense of taste, choose meals from an extensive menu and we always try to meet special requests.”
Around 200 special diets (for medical reasons) are also provided daily, for example, gluten free, low potassium, low residue, dairy free, and high fibre.
Fare from 1948
The menus for patients 60 years ago are striking in the lack of choice. Ruaraidh MacKinnon, Catering Manager from NHS Grampian’s catering service, has been researching the archives for what was on offer at ARI:
“The food was plain and certainly would not meet our present commitment to choice and tailoring meals to patients’ needs. On one day the set menu was porridge for breakfast, lunch was vegetable soup, boiled mutton and peas followed by marmalade pudding and for dinner, it was simply sardines.”
A menu for the former MorningfieldHospital in Aberdeen, included rabbit, gruel, and semolina pudding with vegetable marrow jam.
ENDS
Note to editor:
Photocall opportunities in ABERDEEN, INSCH and KEITH on Saturday,
July 5.
You are invited to take a picture of the NHS 60th birthday cake being given to patients on the Saturday, July 5. Venues:
Aberdeen Royal Infirmary, Ward 20, between 11.15am and noon. Contact Ruaraidh MacKinnon on 07764 362725
InschHospital, between 1pm and 1.30pm. Contact Ruaraidh MacKinnon on 07764 362725
TurnerHospital, Keith, between 2pm and 2.30pm, contact as above.
Attached are examples of 1948 menus.
For further information, please contact Marka Rifat at NHS Grampian Corporate Communications, on 01224 554400.