Hospital set to axe in-house canteen

Walsall Manor Hospital's in-house canteen will be axed and a private firm brought in, leaving catering staff in limbo after up to 30 years in the job.

Canadian company Avenance has been contracted to take over when £174 million new hospital buildings open in May, with the eighteen existing canteen employees offered the chance to try for posts with the new caterers.

But with the longstanding staff members unwilling to end their employment with the NHS to apply for jobs with the private firm, they have been given a list of alternative roles within the hospital.

They believe the only jobs on the list they would qualify for are cleaners' posts but have been told they will not get any redundancy payment if they do not accept a role they are offered. Hospital chiefs say they hope none of the workers will be left jobless. But a source close to the workers, who asked not to be named, said they were unhappy about their plight.

"These are people who have been working for the hospital for years," she said.

"I think they are upset that they are being treated like this. They have been given a list of vacancies, but apart from doctors and nurses posts, they are only really qualified for cleaners' jobs.

"If you have been working in a hospital canteen for years, I can understand why you don't want to suddenly start as a cleaner. It's a totally different job." Sue Wakeman, director of human resources at Walsall Manor Hospital, said: "Catering staff currently working in the dining room were given the option of applying for roles within the new privately-run restaurant.

"The majority agreed that they wanted to continue working for the hospital. As a result, we are working to ensure that those valued members of staff, who have offered such an important service, will be redeployed to new posts within the hospital."

Due to open in May, the revamped Moat Road site will also have a new wing for women's and children's services, a treatment centre and a training complex for the teaching of hospital staff.

Bosses say first class facilities for patients and staff will be created inside the new hospital, with landscaped grounds outside.

The canteen hit the headlines last year after it emerged faggots could be taken off the menu because people were turning their nose up at traditional regional grub.

Fewer than 100 portions of the classic dish had been sold over the last two years at the site, where previously-popular meals like liver were also set for the chop.

Last year the hospital decided to axe the in-house department that provided patients' meals, leaving four workers jobless.

The move to shift food production from the kitchens at the old Goscote Hospital site and have frozen meals transported almost 200 miles from Essex was criticised.

Fears were raised that standards could slip, but bosses hit back saying quality would remain high.