CASE STUDY ASHFORD AND ST PETER’S HOSPITALS NHS FOUNDATION TRUST
TRIED & TRUSTED
Ashford and St Peter’s Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has transformed sta catering for the better
by partnering with FM consultants Neller Davies and workplace caterer BM to bring the service back
in-house. Piers Zangana reports
In 2012, a study co-authored by
Professor Michael West and Professor
Jeremy Dawson identified a direct
link between employee satisfaction and
lower patient mortality rates.
In 2018, a BMA-published report titled
‘Supporting health & wellbeing at work’
stated that: “…at a time when the NHS is
under-resourced, over-stretched and facing
recruitment and retention problems, it is
vital that health and wellbeing of sta is
prioritised”. A key recommendation was
sta access to quality food.
Fast forward a few years and we were
besieged by a global pandemic - a pivotal
moment for NHS workers.
At the height of the enforced lockdowns,
communities were rallying around
local healthcare organisations to o er
their support and help exhausted and
demoralised workers.
24 APRIL 2022
Suddenly, tired healthcare professionals
were no longer fuelling up in tired canteens.
They were enjoying deliveries from highstreet
brands, high-end restaurants and highquality
food suppliers. Sta expectations
were changing.
An independent review of hospital
food launched in October 2020, during
the pandemic, highlighted significant
shortcomings in sta and visitor feeding
across the NHS estate.
The 97-page review, led by Phil Shelley with
support and endorsement from Celebrity
Chef and Food Campaigner Prue Leith,
specifically identified a failure across some,
not all, hospital Trusts to provide adequate
food provision for sta .
Not only was this resulting in droves of
people leaving the NHS but, as Professor
West’s research highlighted, could have had
a major impact on matters of life and death.
Working conditions for sta were thrown
directly into the spotlight, and some Trusts
decided that it was time to take direct and
immediate action.
One such establishment was Ashford and
St Peter’s Hospitals (ASPH), a hospital trust
based in Surrey, providing acute services
to more than 410,000 people in Chertsey,
Ashford and the surrounding areas. It
employs 4,400 members of sta .
Chris Bell, Director of Estates and Facilities
at ASPH, explains: “The pandemic really
brought home the challenges that so many
NHS sta are facing.
“Sta were seeing people dying, including
some of their own colleagues. People were
working long hours, they were tired and
afraid. This was the reality of the situation
and we knew we had to do something to help
in areas that we could make a di erence.”
Recognising this, the ASPH Board was