Changing the perception of food....

Care Tomorrow’sSt Christopher’s Hospice in partnership with Host Management

Host Management, started working with St Christopher’s Hospice in Sydenham over nine years ago. During that time, a real sense of partnership and trust has developed between the two organisations. A hospice is a challenging environment to work in but one that fosters incredible team spirit and provides high levels ofsatisfaction to those involved. St Christopher’s exists to promote and provide skilled and compassionate palliative care of the highest quality.

Part of that care is the catering and hospitality service provided to patients, staff and visitors and this is where Host Management comes in. Up until five years ago, the catering service was essentially ward catering via hot trolleys. However, since

2009, when St Christopher’s opened its Anniversary Centre, the catering service has also included a coffee shop and other facilities.

Nigel Hartley, Director of Supportive Care at St Christopher’s explained:

“One of our aims is to change public perceptions associated with hospices and dying, so when we had the opportunity to open this café, we wanted to make sure it involved the community too and could act as a hub for local people to get involved.”“We have a weekly programme to encourage the local community into the building, which includes curry and pizza nights, a community choir and a ‘Death Chat’ group. The primary role is to provide a service to patients, family members, bereaved people and visitors, but the café actively encourages local people to use it too. For patients and their visitors, it also helps make their experience as normal and comfortable as possible.”

Providing good nutrition is vital in any care setting. In hospices,

where many residents are often ill and off their food, care providers

need to get creative at meal times. At St Christopher’s Hospice,

Host Management has taken inspiration from luxury hotels.

St Christopher’s Hospice & Host

The café is open all day from 8am in the morning until 10pm in the evening, serving breakfast, lunch and tea and the focus is on healthy, fresh and seasonal café-style food. Sundays are also a special day when patients, family and friends can enjoy a traditional Sunday lunch surrounded by other people.

“The challenge with this system was two-fold maintaining the consistency of food quality and presentation when it may have been kept hot for a long period of time, and secondly, patients who are unwell often don’t want to eat pre-determined meals at set times. With 48 patients, we believed that we could run meal times more along the lines of hotel room service whereby patients could eat what they wanted, when they wanted.” The challenge, however, was how to provide this type of service efficiently. Modern technology was the catalyst for change. The Host chefs were able to provide a call order service, but first a system had to be put in place to simplify communications between the ward and the kitchen.

Paul Blacker, Host’s Operations Manager, said:

“The ultimate solution we opted for was part technology, part manual. We’ve located a touch screen in every ward, which enables orders to be placed directly with the kitchen. Patients are given a lightweight aluminium case containing the menu and they decide what they would like to eat and at what time, and the order is then sent to the kitchen.

Host has worked closely with Nigel and his team to modernise the meals on offer to patients. The original inpatient meal service

was distributed by ward staff from heated trolleys and these were

served at set times but, according to Nigel, this didn’t meet the needs

of the patients well enough:

Vera Mirescu is Host’s Catering Manager at St Christopher’s. Vera started working there in 2009 and is also an integral part of Nigel’s team. According to Host’s Paul Blacker, “Vera works tirelessly to make sure the catering at St Christopher’s helps provide the type of calming environment that the hospice aims to create.

In 2013, Vera’s exemplary efforts were recognised when she won Caterer magazine’s Extra Mile Award at their inaugural Food service Catey Awards. “We really have an incredible team of people in the catering department at St Christopher’s, and Vera leads by example all the way,”

“Our team is made up of a unique blend of people who are always coming up with new ideas to add fun and interest to mealtimes. Whether that is with the weekly curry night, special pizza nights or summer barbecues, Vera and the team like to bring a sense of fun and enjoyment to meal experiences. It can be tough emotionally to work in this environment, but they are a truly compassionate group of people who take such pride in their work.”

Order to delivery takes 25 minutes and the result is a freshly prepared

dish that is exactly what the patient is in the mood for.” The reality for many patients is that

when they feel unwell, most seek comfort food that is easy on the palate like lasagne, casseroles, or even scrambled eggs with toast. The new system enables them to have this, which also means that Host has cut food wastage in the

process.

Please feel free to get in touch halcyon.day@hostmgt.com / 01730 897 071.

Alternatively, contact Andrew Scott, Director, andrew.scott@hostmgt.com / 07917 601 545

Thank you for taking the time to review our article from Tomorrow’s Care. I hope you enjoyed reading about our partnership with St. Christopher’s Hospice and what we have achieved over recent years.

We also cater for a number of care and nursing Homes including Lilian Faithful in Cheltenham and the Royal British Legion village in Kent.

We work with our homes to ensure the menus and meals times are not merely routine parts of the day but important and enjoyable highlights for each resident.

We would really like to meet with you and understand your catering needs to see where we could add value and manage your costs more effectively.

Regards

Andrew Scott.Director

www.hostmgt.com

Tel: 01730 897071 | Email: halcyon.day@hostmgt.com Address: Liss House, Station Road, Liss, Hampshire, GU33 7AD

St Christopher’s Hospice partnership with Host Management Care Tomorrow’s