The food at Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust has been rated as among the best in the country.
Over nine out of ten patients at Southport Hospital and Ormskirk Hospital gave their meals the thumbs up, with an impressive rating of 90.41%.
The score comes from a survey of patients and staff, who were all asked to rank the offerings on a range of different factors.
This included the choice of food available, how it tasted, its serving temperature and whether 24-hour availability was possible.
One private provider — Bupa, which has over 45 health centres — scooped a 100 per cent score.
The top four were: 1. Bupa Group: 100 per cent; 2. The Christie NHS Foundation Trust: 99.03 per cent; 3. Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust: 98.62 per cent; 4. Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust: 98.32 per cent.
The worst hospital food providers were rated as: 1. Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust: 71.67 per cent; 2. The Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 73.53 per cent; 3. York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 73.85 per cent; and 4. West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust: 74.56 per cent.
Rankings were assessed from 1,580 reviews, covering 864 sites where meals are provided.
The national average was 90.2 per cent.
To rate food provision, assessors were asked questions relating to the choice of food offered, the 24-hour availability, meal times and access to menus.
An assessment of the food at ward level was also undertaken, including the taste, texture and appropriateness of serving temperature.
As well as rating each provider’s food offerings, it also rates cleanliness and how they support patients’ privacy and dignity.
Other factors include their suitability for patients with specific needs.
In November, NHS England launched its new national standards for hospital food, which are legally binding.
Among the eight standards, include a requirement for trusts to offer hot food 24/7 and letting patients choose their dinner from bed.
More vegetable and fish dishes must also be made available.
It came in the wake of the cook and Great British Bake Off judge, Dame Prue Leith’s blueprint for better hospital food, released in October 2020.
This called on the NHS to make healthier and better quality meals and let patients order food around the clock straight to their bed.
She also said all hospitals should have digital meal ordering by 2022, serve meals on china and ‘go green’ to slash the 14 million kg of wasted meals thrown out by the NHS every year.
The NHS serves 140 million meals to patients every year, and has a further 1.2 million members of staff who require food and drink on shift.
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