Where hundreds of meals are cooked daily and the diners are not complaining about the service

Sarah Saunderson • Published 5 Aug 2010 16:30 0 Comments

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Head Chef, Brian McCaffrey and Hilary Armstrong, Support Services co-ordinator for catering at the Erne Hospital.

This is the kitchen on the ground floor of the Erne Hospital that produces hundreds of meals for patients, staff and the elderly living in the community every day.

On Tuesday, 170 patients were served lunch as were 250 staff members and 50 meals were brought out of the hospital to homes across the area as part of a meals on wheels service.

The expectation would be that as the scale of catering goes up, the taste experience goes down. Not so according to a recent letter writer to this newspaper, Mr. Bernard Boylan, who wrote: "I would like to commend the hospital chef and staff on the tasty and nourishing food I received during my time in hospital".

That hospital chef, or Head cook as he is known, is Mr. Brian McCaffrey, has been working in the hospital kitchen for 10 years after a professional background in hotel kitchens. In all there are eight cooks and chefs and 26 catering assistants. Five cooks are working on any one day. Many of the staff have many years of service, including Ward Waitress Patricia McCormick who has worked in hospital catering for 25 years and Mary McManus, who also has more than 20 years' experience in the kitchen. Everything is made from scratch down to the pastry for the chicken pie, served to scores of patients earlier this week.

The range of options on the menu is surprisingly diverse. In wards such as Maternity, Gynae and Male and Female Surgical, a new pilot menu was introduced last year which gives a bigger choice to the patients in those wards. Patients are given menu cards a day in advance so they know exactly what to expect when the breakfast, lunch or tea tray arrives at their bedside. At lunch, for instance, there is a wide-ranging three course menu that has been dietician approved. As well as juice or soup to start, on Tuesday there was a huge array of main meals including a fish, chicken or gammon dish, two vegetarian options, a choice of potato or rice and a vegetable selection alongside a selection of salads and sandwiches.

A large choice of desserts also includes fruit and yoghurt and cheese and biscuits. Each dish is listed with symbols beside it to indicate whether the choice is suitable for diabetics, is a healthy option or vegetarian. Of course, there are also liquidised meals for those patients requiring them.

Breakfast is served at 7.30 - 8 am, lunch at 11.30am -12 noon and evening tea at 4.30-5pm. Another menu with fewer options is served in Wards 8, 9 and 10, ICU and Children's ward.

Staff use a tray meal system where the menu choice is consulted and different elements of the meal are assembled on the tray as it goes down the line in the kitchen prior to going to the wards. Mrs. Hilary Armstrong, Support Services Co-ordinator, said: "The food is served hot and it is fresh. Our food would be the traditional type of cooking. Food is all bought in fresh and prepared on the day. Prior to service, it is put into bain-maries, it goes into trolleys and transported by porters to the wards. It is then served by auxillary or nursing staff on the wards". Constant checks are made to make sure the temperature of the food remains consistent.

The same standards are applied to the meals on wheels and 100 meals that are sent out to the Drumcoo and Tempo Road Day centres and the Salvation Army, which is served on a seasonal basis from the Erne Hospital kitchen.

While patients order from all the meal options, Head Cook Mr. McCaffrey has noticed a weakness for Beef Stroganoff among the patients. Among his many duties, he is in charge of ordering the supplies, which are subsequently sanctioned by Mrs. Armstrong. While it would be difficult to pinpoint the cost of an average meal, they do work to a budget. The particularly busy times would be in the run-up to lunch, with Mr. McCaffrey beginning preparations from 9am. While work in hotels gave him a good grounding for heading the team in a hospital kitchen, he sees it as a completely different environment. Given that his clientele can often be very ill, there are particular challenges. "Everything is accountable. Everything is on a time and everything has to be probed for temperature and recorded," he said.

In two years' time, it will be all change. In location that is. Plans show that the move to the new Acute Hospital for the South West at Wolf Lough on the Irvinestown Road will see staff working from a main kitchen or in one of the five satellite kitchens, cooking food for the 300-plus patients or for staff and visitors in the planned restaurant or coffee bar.

This article appeared in Impartial Reporter 05 Aug 10

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