Healthcare hotel services company Medirest has been awarded a two-year contract extension worth £28 million in total turnover to provide catering, cleaning, portering and vending services to Hammersmith, Charing Cross, Queen Charlotte’s and Chelsea and Ravenscourt Park Hospitals in west London for the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust.
Medirest has held the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust contract since 2001 and the company’s innovative services have led to a significant and steady rise in catering and cleaning standards in the Trust’s four hospitals.
Most recently, the Trust scored “excellent” ratings in five out of eight cleaning and patient catering categories in the latest Patient Environment Action Team (PEAT) inspections. These are rigorous annual audits of cleaning standards and patient environments in NHS hospitals, which the Government launched in 2000 under its Clean Hospitals programme.
Medirest has introduced its marketleading a+ cleaning programme at all four Hammersmith NHS Trust hospitals, which contributed significantly to the PEAT achievement. This is a microfibrebased cleaning system which dramatically improves infection control and signficantly reduces bacteria levels.
Medirest has also introduced innovations in the Trust’s patient dining services with the launch of the company’s new Steamplicity dishes. A first in the UK, these are restaurant quality, steamcooked, fresh hot meals which are prepared and cooked to order for the patient on the ward.
“Steamplicity is a major breakthrough in the drive for better hospital food,” commented Claire Rayner, president of the Patients Association.
