[Osem]

Originally Posted by Stuart C

Actually when I worked for our local hospital, there wasn't a lot of waste. But then I did credit control for the Catering department. The headquarters of the Trust (which was down the corridor from my office) always had state of the art facilities and equipment, while we had to make do with cookers that were over 10 years old (so kept breaking) and a kitchen that was state of the art when build (20 years previously) but was a bit worn.

Still, the amount they wasted was nothing compared to the expenses incurred as a result of the contracts *they* signed. A couple of examples of contracts I queried.. We used heated trolleys (essentially industrial versions of the old hostess trolleys) to transport the food to the wards. These were computerised, and the logic boards frequently failed, costing £500 + labour to replace. At one point ,half the trolleys were out of action.

The problem was that the company who supplied the trolley hadn't asked about the layout of the hospital, the manager who ordered the trolleys hadn't thought to tell them and the trolleys were not designed for extensive outdoor use. The hospital was in a series of buildings, only some of which were joined. Most of the wards were in their own little buildings which were not connected to the main hospital.

Another contract I actually blew the whistle on (and was told it was being dealt with, although it never was) was our greengrocer contract. The grocer was charging nearly £500 a day for our greens (it was a 600 bed hospital), yet I went to the local Sainsburys and found it would have actually been cheaper for us to send a couple of people there (it was actually at the end of the hospital car park), and buy the greens in there. They would have been better quality as well.

I have a feeling that 'dodgy' contracts account for a great deal of the money which has been thrown at the NHS and wasted.