Oxfordshire Community Hospital kitchen closures

The Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust confirmed this month that it closed the kitchens at Wantage, Didcot, Wallingford and Witney hospitals in order to save around £300,000 a year.

The story was covered by the Oxford Mail and the Oxfordshire Guardian, and Sustain Coordinator Kath Dalmeny was interviewed at 5.10pm by David Prever at Drivetime on BBC Radio Oxford.

In the interview, Kath was clear that the current closures are purely a cost saving measure that have already caused job losses. Food is a central part of the care provided to people in hospitals.

Katherine Button of the Campaign for Better Hospital Food said:

“Most people prefer a home-cooked dinner to a ready meal and the same principle applies with hospital food. When a hospital kitchen closes, patients, staff and hospital visitors are more than likely to end up eating reheated frozen food, or chilled food delivered by van, sometimes transported for miles, topped up by unhealthy snacks from coffee shops and vending machines. If we care about the health and wellbeing of patients and their families, then they need to be served good, fresh food to meet their needs. Food is also a vital opportunity for a hospital’s money to be invested in the local economy, with hospital chefs buying fresh ingredients from local farmers and other suppliers. When a hospital kitchen is lost, all these benefits are lost as well.”

We would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone that backed the Oxfordshire campaign against the closures.