Catering at Queenscourt
Queenscourt’s catering team prepares and serves traditional home-made food every day, using good quality fresh ingredients sourced locally.
In addition to our varied daily menu we also cater for anyone who has special dietary needs, i.e. people with diabetes, coeliac disease, vegetarians, those needing a pureed diet and those with specific religious beliefs. Patients may also wish to have something brought in from home to eat, and family members are welcome to do this. However, we cannot reheat any food brought in from outside.
All our catering staff are trained and qualified for their roles to nationally recognised levels and are supported by a dedicated team of volunteers.
A member of our catering team visit every patient individually prior to each mealtime to ensure that their wishes and choices are being met.
“We build a direct relationship with our patients, where we are able to understand their likes and dislikes and how their appetite is, for example, it’s so important not to serve too large a portion as it can be over-facing,” said our Cook Supervisor Sandra Stevenson.
“Eventually, when Government guidance permitted, we were able to return to the ward and meet our patients and it quickly became apparent how important this was to them. Pre-Covid, the patient’s family could provide the special items the patient liked, and now it was up to us to make sure that the patient received items such as a certain brand of ice lolly they preferred, the pack of fruit they liked, or a specific type of biscuit.”
The Catering Team still ensure they help patients celebrate any special occasions. A birthday will see a cake made for a patient and we have even had a couple of weddings at the hospice when a bottle of fizz as well as a cake was rolled out.
Some patients were on our ward over the Christmas period and couldn’t be with their families, so it was important to us that we celebrated with a traditional Christmas lunch and hand-made truffles.
We’ve also made sure that other special occasions such as Mother’s Day and Easter are marked, especially when our patients can’t be with their families. We feel privileged to share these times with them.
Sandra said: “Our job has changed somewhat over the last 12 months, but what hasn’t changed is the commitment to ensuring our patients receive the very best we can offer. In fact, the Pandemic has merely highlighted how important it is that we continue to provide the most delicious and appetising food for our patients.”
Queenscourt kitchen is open
Queenscourt kitchen is open throughout the day and evening catering for patients, staff and sessions in our TBEC education centre. Outside these hours there is always the facility for our patients to have a light meal or snack.