Catering staff at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust (UHB) are celebrating after being named the second best hospital catering service in the country.

The UHB Team were runners-up in the 'Catering Service of the Year' category at the Hospital Caterers Association Awards 2015, in Glasgow, after being nominated by their manager, Ben Foxall.

A delighted Ben said: “To be named runners-up in the country is a massive achievement.

“This recognition is a great reward for the entire Catering Team. The staff have been tremendous.

“We have got a lot of people with 25, 30 years-plus service, many families and a good variety of people from right across the city, many making long and time-consuming trips on public transport to get here, often for short shifts.”

Ben, who has been with UHB for two years and won this award in his previous position at Gloucestershire Hospitals, hailed the work the Catering Team have put in since the new QEHB opened.

“It’s not every day that staff move into a brand new Trust, a brand new hospital, and from day one have to set it up from scratch,” he added.

“The work that they’ve done over the last five years to get this place up and running has been amazing and that’s what we based our submission on.

“None of our departmental achievements could have been delivered without the dedication of the staff; they are the key drivers of our success and it’s only through their commitment, their feedback, diligence and hard work that the Trust is able to deliver the best in care.”

Catering Services currently deliver 4,050 meals each day to patients over breakfast, lunch and supper along with at least seven drinks, with support from nursing teams to ensure patients are appropriately supported during meal times.

The Trust’s busy retail outlets accommodate eat-in capacity for up to 300 people (mainly outpatients, staff and visitors) and provide a take-out service with revenue going towards retail development and improvements in patient feeding.

Initiatives during the last year have included a menu-based collation system, increasing speed and accuracy and improving stock control, and an ethnic menu review in consultation with local community leaders which consolidated the existing Halal and Kosher meals and saw the introduction of Asian vegetarian and Afro Caribbean offerings.

As a result of such innovations Ben is proud of the adaptability and flexibility of his service in responding to special dietary requirements and individual patient needs.

“We are obliged to make a certain number of calories available to patients each day via the meals we provide. It’s all about getting the balance right between the quality and cost of that food,” he explained.

“We have a very close relationship with nursing staff and dietitians and will go above and beyond our basic service provision whenever possible.

“For instance, long term patients may get menu fatigue, when they have had everything on the menu over a few weeks, and could do with a change. We will accommodate that if we can.”

Having just missed out on the top prize this year, Ben is now determined that his team can go one better in the future.