Richard Middleton elevates patient dining at Stoke Mandeville Hospital
To coincide with Nutrition and Hydration Week (11 to 17 March), Richard Middleton, Sodexo’s Deputy Manager for Patient Services at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, discusses what fuels his passion for enhancing patient dining experiences.
Richard has been involved in the hospitality industry since the age of 18, starting his career in bars and nightclubs, before moving into chef roles, chef manager positions and then into retail. He’s always had a passion for seeing people enjoy good food and drink. It’s that love of seeing an empty plate that drives him in his current position.
It's Richard’s role to help ensure patient services, including dining, reflect the specific needs of every individual occupying one of the hospital’s 650 beds. He’s under no illusions about the importance of mealtimes and works with his 90-strong team and Sodexo’s dietitian to provide menus that are fresh, healthy, varied, balanced and attractive.
“When it comes to patient recovery and wellbeing, food can often be overlooked, and the focus is on the clinical side,” says Richard. “Yet food is the one thing we can change for patients. They can’t influence the medicine they take, or the ward they are on, but they can have a say at mealtimes. So we play such a key role, and I always stress this to my team. Good nutrition and recovery are linked, that’s why it’s so important for us to serve food that people need, and want, to eat. If someone has had surgery for example, providing them with the right proteins can help their bodies heal more quickly.”
Stoke Mandeville has a diverse patient cohort, and nutrition and hydration needs are sometimes complex. With breakfast, a mid-morning snack, lunch and supper served every day, it can be a challenge to offer a varied menu that ensures people keep clearing their plates.
“We have the National Spinal Injuries Centre here, where some patients can spend up to four years, and menu fatigue can be a problem,” says Richard. “So we are always working hard to break up the menu cycle and engage patients at mealtimes.”
In addition to our main menus we are planning to hold theme days each month, featuring different cultural cuisines, the team regularly takes spinal patients out of the ward to enjoy mealtimes together. “Terri our Patient Concierge has introduced evening services where we gather sometimes up to 30 patients at once in a hospital restaurant, our patients’ relatives also attend the event – when they’re in a social situation they tend to eat and drink more. It’s something people really look forward to.”
The hospital is also home to Horatio’s Garden, a charity committed to the rehabilitation and wellbeing of people following spinal injuries. Richard and his team of hosts make full use of this beautifully designed garden space, bringing patients to the on-site café to enjoy drinks, fruit and homemade cakes.
The patient services team has also recently introduced a brand new meal concept for the paediatric wards. “The children were telling us that soups and salads for their evening meal were not appealing so we have designed and developed a ‘picnic box’ style supper which is full of snackable items,” Richard explains working alongside our client and our dietitian, Hasina Aktar, to bring this feedback into much more suitable and enjoyable menu on site. “There are some treats in there, such as chocolate bars, but it’s nutritionally balanced with healthier options including wraps, juices and fruit and veg sticks. We all eat with our eyes and the boxes are animal farm branded – the children dive in and see what they have inside. It’s lovely to see how excited they are.”
Across the wards, the focus on good nutrition and hydration remains as acute. Theme days are part of the programme and right now the team is gearing up to launch a new two-week cyclical menu. “We’re introducing authentic new suppliers for our most requested dishes, such as curries, and expanding the range of vegan options,” says Richard. “This will bring a much wider variety to mealtimes and will be a cook to plate service and more appealing to the eye, which is proven to improve the perception of hospital food and increase uptake.”
Many of the menu developments Richard and the team have made have been as a direct result of feedback from the wards. Patients are invited to review each meal via a Q&A which can be accessed online by QR code on their menus, or on paper. “Our patient concierge, part of Circles, is with the spinal patients day in, day out, so can help them submit feedback and is also able to go shopping for any particular food or drink requests.”
For Nutrition and Hydration Week (11-17 March 2024), Richard has put together a calendar of events including a Wednesday tea party and ‘fruity Friday’ along other extra for our patients throughout the week. He has also adapted the tray liners used for each meal service to further highlight this week. These carry information on special diets, how to request an out-of-hours meal and who to call on if you need assistance with your meal.
Richard says: “I came into a hospital environment to get a different view of catering and having been at Stoke Mandeville for 12 years now I have seen real progression in the patient dining. We are here to make sure patients are heard and we act on their feedback. This is our third year promoting Nutrition and Hydration Week and I’m a real believer in raising awareness of the importance of food and drink to our patients.”