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  • Health
  • NHS News
  • NHS delivering better food and cleanliness


    8th December 2005
    PEAT scores show overall improvement but CNO says more work needs to be done.
    Chief Nursing Officer, Christine Beasley, today welcomed the publication of the PEAT (Patient Environment Action Team) results for 2004/05 showing an overall improvement in the standard of cleanliness and food in the NHS.

    Chris Beasley said: "Food scores for hospitals show that more hospitals are providing an excellent or good service, delivering higher quality and better choice of food. But we know that lots more work needs to be done. With the introduction of initiatives such as protected mealtimes and 24-hour catering, staff in the NHS will now play a key role in ensuring that patients eat nutritional and balanced meals.

    "The NHS is now ensuring that cleanliness is everyone's business and these latest results show that many more hospitals are achieving excellent and good ratings. But we are not complacent and will continue to work with trusts to drive up standards. With the hard work of NHS staff, and the new statutory hygiene code and tougher inspection regime currently being discussed in parliament, we can work to further drive up standards of cleanliness across the NHS."

    This is the first time that the PEAT process has been undertaken as an entirely self-assessment in which many trusts involved their patient forums, infection control staff and healthcare teams. A number of sites, selected randomly, also received additional validation visits to assure quality and accuracy.
    Hospital Food

    % of HospitalsExcellentGoodAcceptablePoorUnacceptable
    200532.4%51.5%14.8%1.3%0.0%
    20048.1%50.3%35.2%5.9%0.6%


    In 2005/06 the PEAT assessment will introduce a number of extra food-related questions to help assess the service to patients in more detail.

    The NHS serves 300 million meals at a cost of £500m annually. A survey of over 300 hospital trusts for last year shows the average spend on each main meal for patients in the NHS is £2.60, which includes labour costs and services. Patients now have a much wider choice of healthy nutritious food in the NHS, with dieticians helping to plan menus that provide a healthy balanced diet at the same time as food that people want to eat.

    The Better Hospital Food program has introduced a series of initiatives in the NHS to deliver high quality food and food services to patients. These include:

    Protected Mealtimes: Protected Mealtimes are periods on a hospital ward when all non-urgent clinical activity stops. During these times patients are able to eat without being interrupted and staff can offer assistance and at least 70% of hospitals now use this approach.

    24-hour Catering: With the introduction of 24-hour Catering patients can now ask a nurse or housekeeper for food, snacks and drinks at any time of the day or night.

    Nutrition: Work is currently underway with the FSA to develop a set of nutrition and food based standrads for the NHS, to help put nutrition at the heart of food delivery in hospitals.
    Patient Environment
    % of HospitalsExcellentGoodAcceptablePoorUnacceptable
    200510.3%44.8%40.1%4.6%0.2%
    200410.0%38.5%49.2%2.0%0.3%


    A PEAT assessment not only looks at the cleanliness issues within a hospital but also takes stock of other areas, which influence the patient's overall experience. For example; decoration, linen, furniture and state of repair.

    A number of high profile programmes, including the continuing NPSA Cleanyourhands campaign and the Think Clean Day undertaken by many trusts, have ensured that environmental issues within hospitals stay at the top of the NHS agenda. Guidance to help ensure hospitals have clear and binding contracts to deliver high standards of cleaning was published in December last year.

    The guidance provided:

    • A best practice guide on evaluating and awarding contracts so that quality is considered alongside price
    • Revised National Specifications for Cleanliness which set out clearly the standards which hospitals should provide as a minimum
    • The recommended minimum cleaning frequencies which need to be followed
    • A revised Healthcare Facilities Cleaning Manual to reflect changes in cleaning technologies and practices



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