Part of the wider Mid Cheshire Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Leighton Hospital has been an operational healthcare facility on the outskirts of Crewe for over 45 years. Currently it has 550 beds, treating patients through a wide range of services alongside other outlying care facilities within the Trust.
Since its opening, Leighton Hospital had operated with a traditional “cook-on-site” catering system, but increasing operational challenges were putting pressure on the department suggesting that something needed to change, Francis Kearns, Facilities Operations Manager, explained:
“We had a number of issues before moving across to a cook-freeze system. We were heavily reliant on the chef resource, which at times provided us with risks and challenges whereby we had to sometimes move across to cold dinner options – which wasn’t welcomed by the patients.
“The impact of the traditional cook system on the staff was also heavily pressured, and moving across to cook-freeze has relieved some of that pressure.”
Head of Facilities at the site, Paula Bamber echoed this sentiment citing further challenges that the department was experiencing before the transition:
“When I joined, catering was one of the Facilities services that immediately stuck out as desperately requiring work. It was very antiquated; all paper-driven and old-fashioned.
“We had intensive production processes and were seeing increasing costs due to inflation of well above 60% in some areas.
“In the kitchens, we were having to worry about cross-contamination of food and allergens, and we were also seeing menu fatigue with only having 28 dishes on rotation on a one-week menu cycle. It all just felt that it could collapse at any time.”
Lower PLACE scores were another reason for looking to make changes to the catering services:
“The first PLACE I was involved in at Leighton saw our food scores drop dramatically, I believe we were in the bottom 10 hospitals. This wasn’t just the food, but all aspects of the overall service, and it gave me the proof that we really had to make a change.
“The Trust and I are very focused on an excellent patient experience, and we knew that we were not delivering on the patient experience to the standard we wanted.”
Better in Partnership
Faced with these challenges, the Trust decide to shift from on-site meal provision to a cook-freeze model and search for a partner that shared its core values and could deliver an outstanding dining experience for patients.
This led them to apetito, an industry leader in preprepared meals for the Healthcare sector, who have been working closely with Leighton Hospital since July 2024 - marking a transformative step in ensuring the highest standards of patient care.
Paula explained how her past working experiences helped in choosing this supplier partnership:
“I knew that apetito was the market leader in this field, which is why I drove hard pulling the extensive business case together to get the service in place. I told the Trust, “If you want to bring a cook-freeze solution in, we need to bring it in with the best”.
Francis too brought valuable experience from previous roles, reinforcing trust in the meal provider:
“I’d worked around a number of Trusts using apetito and I’d seen how the system works and how it has progressed over the years. In general terms, I’ve seen the good, the bad and, pretty much, the ugly, and apetito certainly falls within the category of “the good”
Beyond strong industry reputation, ensuring high-quality food also played an important role in choosing a partner, with Francis deeming it “instrumental” in the decision-making process. Andrew also agreed, commenting:
“It was important that we made sure people really understood the quality of the meals. With the preconception of it being frozen and reheated, some people were quite surprised at the quality of the food, how well it presented and how it appears up on ward level for the patients.”
A Seamless Transition
Being the only Healthcare meal provider with a dedicated Training and Operations team, apetito prides itself on a seamless, well-supported transition for new customers. Its team are equipped to guide every step, tailoring the process to suit individual hospitals and be on hand with expertise whenever needed.
And Leighton Hospital was no different. Moving over to a new catering provision is no mean feat, especially one engrained in the culture, but the mobilisation process, led by Training and Operations Manager, Chris Hadley, went as well as could be, explained Francis:
“The transition was amazing. From a planning perspective, apetito was involved from day one – providing information for our business case, supporting us with food tasting sessions, coming to site at the drop of a hat when we had any issues or questions on how the system would work operationally – Chris and the rest of the team have been magnificent in providing that support. I have never seen a smoother mobilisation.”
The mobilisation day received further praise from the team at Leighton, as the service got up and running with no disruption to food services. Paula said:
“The support on the mobilisation day was phenomenal. We had around 50 external people supporting on the floor, with a lot of them from apetito, who were teaching as we went. They guided the pick-and-pack team step-by-step for a couple of days to make sure they felt confident. There was just a constant support mechanism in place the whole time.
“From a site that has gone from a traditional service to a completely new concept, it was outstanding. I must pay huge credit to the apetito team, who were hands on for days before.”
Martin Foster, Divisional Director of Estates and Facilities also commented on the positive reception of the many tasting sessions carried out across the site, to ensure everyone was brought along for the journey:
“We had a lot of engagement with both staff and patients and there were various tasting sessions that everyone enjoyed – the Sticky Toffee Pudding was a particular highlight for everyone!”
Thorough training is an essential part of a transition of this nature, ensuring that all staff members have a strong understanding of the new products and system, and that the individual needs of the hospital site are met. Francis praised the process, saying:
“We initially started with a two-hour training session that all the team undertook, including managers, to demonstrate things like how to load food into the ovens and how the food service should be delivered at the ward level. Overall, the training has been fantastic and informative, and the support provided by the team has been excellent.”
And the bespoke approach of the training programme was commended by Andrew:
“Our system is a bulk central production, rather than a bulk ward-level production, and so the training provided was tailored for that purpose and the cooking requirements that we have here at Leighton.
“I’ve also been impressed at the personal level of which the apetito mobilisation team and the training and operations manager has approached our team and put them at ease around this change.”
Making A Real Difference to Patient Catering
With the new service now successfully operating for over six months, the hospital has been able to offer patients a significantly wider selection of high-quality meals, and Francis expressed that the meal options for those requiring specialist diets has also been greatly improved:
“Never in a million years would anyone think that the food had been cooked and frozen, everything tastes really fresh and “restaurant standard food” is what’s being fed back by the patients.
“Previously we were limited in dysphagic or specialist diet meals for patients, however now we have a full range available. Also, with portion sizing it used to be a free-for-all and there was a lack of understanding over what was involved, but I think this move has helped to educate our own team in better understanding the nutritional content of the meals.”
Not only has the food provision been enhanced, but moving across to a preprepared service has also shown time efficiency improvements for staff members, shared Francis:
“Day-to-day the staff used to work to set schedules, such as making gravies or custards, to support the chefs. Now that they don’t have to do that, we’re starting to see the preparation for the meal service is a lot less strenuous on the staff themselves and they have more time to focus on what is required before going onto the wards.”
In agreement with Francis, Paula expressed how the transition has further supported the wellbeing of the catering team:
“It’s made a huge difference for our team, especially from a work-life balance perspective – being able to finish work on time and go on holiday when they want – the kitchens feel a lot more relaxed.”
Leading the Way to a Greener Future
For the Mid Cheshire Hospital Trust, partnering with an organisation that shares its values is paramount—especially when it comes to sustainability and making a meaningful impact on the planet. With a target to achieve Net Zero by 2040, apetito has demonstrated a strong commitment to responsible business practices, working alongside customers to cut the carbon footprint of mealtimes—an alignment that perfectly supports the Trust’s mission, as Martin explained:
“We were keen to find an organisation that shared our values for sustainability and for putting patients first. apetito have been able to match our Trust values and it’s been a great start to our partnership together.”
Since moving away from an on-site cooking approach, Leighton Hospital has started to see improvements to its environmental impacts, particularly around food waste levels, Francis explains:
“Food wastage is starting to decrease now, and we’re starting to get a lot more control of it. One of the positives is that if we over-order then the food is kept frozen and it doesn’t end up getting taken out and wasted, so we are starting to see our production waste decrease and we’re developing a better understanding of the volumes needed day-to-day.”
“We were made aware of the sustainability benefits that apetito can bring, and that was aligned with our own strategic values and views.”
Looking Ahead
As the new service continues to embed, and the partnership continues to build, it is clear to Andrew, and the rest of the team at Leighton Hospital, that mealtimes have been transformed for the better at the site:
“The food provision is better, the stock-management, now our facilities are fully installed, is a lot better, so I do feel that apetito has made a significant change to our catering operation.”
According to Paula, the ongoing support has not faltered throughout the process:
“We have a brilliant working partnership. We know that we can always pick the phone up and they will be there to support with no issue. For example, we have been speaking about doing some refresher training for the team, and we know that apetito will be there to support this without a doubt.
Francis added:
“We want this partnership to continue the way that it’s started as it’s already been a really strong working relationship. We will keep working together to shape patient menus moving forwards and enhance our patient experience overall.”