"We could never have foreseen this," says John Hughes, catering manager at Nottingham City Hospital as he peers at the water dripping from the ceiling of the potwash room. "You just don't quite know what could happen when you put a new kitchen into an old building."
While the majority of the hospital's catering staff are enjoying significantly better working conditions in their new £850,000 kitchen, those in the potwash room are having to remain patient for a little longer.
The cause of the build-up of water is a formerly undiscovered steam-leak from a pipe under the floor. This leak, combined with a newly lagged ceiling, has resulted in two different air temperatures in the potwash room, condensation and, ultimately, precipitation.
"Half the battle was finding out where this moisture-laden air was coming from," Hughes says. "That took some time in itself."
As well as being unpredictable, the "rain" is also going to be expensive to stop. Locating the leaking pipe means digging up the whole of the potwash concrete floor. And on top of this the ceiling, only recently retiled, will have to be redone. Work is scheduled to start in the next couple of weeks, and Hughes estimates the total cost will be about £4,000. Money for the repairs will come from the hospital's ordinary budget and will have no impact on the patients' feeding budget.
As Hughes is well aware, digging up concrete floors and stripping ceilings is difficult work in an operational kitchen. "We'll have to put up screens to stop the dust spreading and limit the disruption," he says. "The staff know the problem is temporary but it's still disappointing for us."
Despite the problems in the potwash room, however, the new kitchen is continuing to bring the catering team unforeseen benefits as well as problems. Hughes is enthusiastic on the subject of the new blast chiller, a piece of equipment that has cut down on time and wastage.
"The new facilities have opened our eyes to what we can do in terms of our equipment," he says. "And the concentration of our chefs in one kitchen means greater cross-fertilisation between the catering teams."
Using the blast chiller has given food produced in the kitchen specifically for patient meals a longer life and a greater diversity of use. "If we cook-chill for the patient menu, for example, we can then chill anything unused and serve it the next day in our retail outlets on baked potatoes," Hughes says.
Cutting back on the restaurant opening times and extending opening hours at the profitable Coffee City sandwich and snack outlets has also reduced staff costs and proved popular with hospital visitors.
"We're trying to make our production more intelligent," Hughes says. "We just need to stop the rain first."
Factfile
Nottingham City Hospital, Hucknall Road, Nottingham, NGS 1PB
Tel: 0115 969 1169
Catering manager: John Hughes
Patient meals a day: about 3,200 (1,000-bed hospital)
Daily budget per patient: £2.50 (includes three meals, drinks and snacks)
Investment in new kitchen (including temporary kitchen during building): £850,000
Number of staff: 65, including 12 chefs
Approximate cost of rebuilding pot-wash room: £4,000
The story so far
Nottingham City Hospital has invested in a new kitchen to provide 3,200 meals for patients every day. The kitchen, which opened last September, cost £850,000 and replaced the hospital's two former kitchens. Catering manager John Hughes has overseen the redesign of the kitchen facilities and is firmly at the helm of the modernised operation.