Barnet Hospital achieves triple NHS Exemplar status for portering, catering and cleaning
Barnet Hospital in partnership with Medirest, the healthcare division of Compass Group UK & Ireland, has achieved the prestigious NHS ‘Exemplar’ status across portering, catering and cleaning. They are the second hospital to achieve all three elements of recognition within the NHS.
Based in north London, Barnet Hospital is part of the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust group, offering a wide range of acute medical services. These include paediatrics, dermatology, gynaecology, maternity services and cancer surgery among others.
A team of NHS England representatives visited the hospital in July this year to evaluate and review services. The acknowledgements have been confirmed due to:
- The outstanding leadership and collaboration between the portering team, other facilities teams and clinical colleagues.
- The use of digital technology to shape and prioritise workload, as well as utilising digital tools to enable flexibility in reacting to day-to-day challenges. In particular excellent evidence that the cleaning standards provide the tools for success.
- Evidence of positive working relationships at ward level, which showed clear knowledge of the demand on clinical services as well as the ability to flex and prioritise to meet and adapt to this.
- The excellent teamwork and organisation within the catering teams. Team members were extremely proud of their menus and service model, which was evidently meeting the varying needs of patients.
The NHS Exemplar recognition acknowledges the delivery of the best-in-class service and that the team will share learnings and experiences to enable other Trusts to follow suit.
Barnet Hospital and Medirest have partnered since 2007.
Emma Brookes, Head of Soft FM Strategy and Operations at NHS England, commented: “It is so encouraging to see true partnership working between our hospitals and our facilities management partners to ensure patients, staff and visitors have access to great food in a clean and safe environment that supports patient care and recovery.”
Deborah Sanders, Barnet Hospital, Chief Executive said: “This is a phenomenal achievement for our domestic, portering and catering colleagues. I am so pleased that they have been recognised in this way, as they work so hard to help deliver excellent care for our patients. They should be incredibly proud of themselves. This award is testament to the wonderful partnership between Medirest and Barnet Hospital - congratulations to everybody.”
Russell Blake, Managing Director, Healthcare – Compass Group UK & Ireland: “Our teams work to support our partners, with the aim of delivering our Performance with Heart ethos. This means that when we receive external verification that these partnerships are delivering exemplary services, we are thrilled. Within Barnet our colleagues work tirelessly across these services to deliver for patients and I would like to thank them for going above and beyond and congratulate them on this achievement.”