Outsourcing NHS services seems to be the way things are going; quick profit over offering a service could be a problem, though: https://leamingtonobserver.co.uk/news/west-midlands-ambulance-service-hands-over-running-of-111-helpline-40110/

In my experience outsourcing rarely works as you are passing control on to others, yet you are still ultimately responsible. It's yet another slight of hand used by accountants to massage a quick profit for the shareholders.

The Warwick Hospital food/meals is run by ISS Catering.
It is absolutely awful, hardly anyone goes to the hospital canteen.
If that's what patients get on the wards, God help them.
Times have changed for the worst.

I remember working at Farnborough Hospital in Kent, and the Canteen was fabulous, spotless clean, they served up superb variety of breakfast dishes and wonderful dinners and puddings, that was over 30 years ago. Staff used to arrive for work and start the day with a good breakfast there. We used to have puddings for our breaks, sometimes. Watching hour weight was difficult. Canterbury hospital Canteen was excellent as well. You could get a good substantial dinner for a good price.


Sadly the good old days,are all in the dim distant past now.

And one has to ask, Margaret, are our patients any better off? Has their health improved? Are their stays any shorter? My bet is that we have negative replies, and all that has happened is a few pennies have been saved at the expense of the patients and staff. BUT, some hospital 'manager' somewhere will have gotten themselves a big fat bonus for saving those few pennies.

When I was doing my MBA we had an NHS manager come along to give us a talk. I systematically took her and her management theories apart, much to the amusement of the other students. The lecturers were pretty p*ssed off with me, but they couldn't fault my logic or line of thought. Frankly, the woman wouldn't be capable of holding down a job in the real world.

I know rebook, these NHS managers get these fancy titles and they are useless. its true.

I've encountered several examples of outsourcing in my time, all to achieve 'value for money'. As a consequence, IT infrastructure/service has reversed by 20 years, and catering has gone from 3-4 full meal options a day to a choice of (overpriced) sandwiches/jacket spuds/mediocre salads.