Following extensive and lengthy discussion with our catering partners, the organisation is pleased to confirm that further improvements have been made to our out-of-hours catering offer.

Changes made have led to a dramatically increased and improved range of meals stocked in the out-of-hours catering vending machines located in the entrance hallway of The Hub, on-site at the QE Hospital. Changes made put meal options in focus, leaving snacking options for the various vending machines dotted around the entire hospital – and which were recently upgraded to enable card payments.

Particular thanks are owed to our Catering and Procurement Teams, who have been keenly interacting with our partners to improve stocking options based on staff feedback. That we could not make what felt like a simple change to stocking for such a prolonged period has been a source of frustration for all of us for some time, given that we very much shared the concerns of staff. Nevertheless, we apologise that we could not make this happen sooner.

While improvements have been made, the health and wellbeing team, procurement team and catering team will continue to monitor the situation closely – treating the changes as a pilot while working with the vending partner to ensure that this improvement is sustained, to seek and implement potential further improvements and to explore alternative options if necessary.

As part of the organisation’s response to ongoing difficulties with out-of-hours catering options, free meals had been provided to night shift workers from freezers located within The Hub and Peter Smith Surgery Centre cafe. In light of the aforementioned improvements as well as our plans to monitor the situation going forward; the potential options available to us if required, and in recognition of our responsibility to play a role in assisting in efforts to boost the organisation’s financial position, we would like to inform colleagues that we will pause this offer from Monday 4th December.

If you would like to help us capture feedback around the new offer, please consider completing our feedback form via the button below – or by scanning the QR code on posters by the machine itself. You can also contact the health and wellbeing team directly via [email protected].