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Care Opinion

Cafe on level 4

Posted By funnyyz65

"Cafe on level 4"

About: Royal Hospital for Children and Young People (Edinburgh)

(as a parent/guardian),

When I went upstairs today to get my lunch I was told that I couldn’t have salad with my flatbread as they don’t serve it until noon. I arrived at 11:45 and explained that I had to be back on the ward by noon due to my little one's (9 weeks old) feeding plan. I asked if it was the same for the soup that I could see next to the register and was told yes. As an exclusively breastfeeding on a very strict feeding regime it’s incredibly frustrating as I could see the soup and salad and it was only 15 mins before noon. I’m not fed on the ward as I’m a parent not a child and this makes it incredibly hard to ensure I am having enough food to give my body the energy it needs to feed my baby. Surely this needs to change or an element of common sense applied by the staff in the cafe. 

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Responses

Response from Ana Mezzomo, Patient Experience Officer, Patient Experience Team, NHS Lothian 12 months ago
Ana Mezzomo
Patient Experience Officer, Patient Experience Team,
NHS Lothian

Submitted on 16/05/2023 at 15:43
Published on Care Opinion at 15:43

Dear funnyyz65,

My name is Ana and I work within the Patient Experience Team at NHS Lothian. I want to thank you for sharing your feedback with us on Care Opinion, that is much appreciated.

I am saddened to read your story around your experience in the Cafe on level 4 at the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People, it is really disappointing to hear about the lack of empathy you had to experience. I can appreciate it must have been a very frustrating and stressful situation for you not having the support and understanding you needed from staff, and I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for that.

Please be assured that your feedback has been shared with the Catering Management Team who will review this appropriately.

I hope your little one is alright, and you are enjoying motherhood.

Best wishes,

Ana Mezzomo

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Response from Danny Gillan, Head of Soft Facilities Management, Facilities, NHS Lothian 12 months ago
Danny Gillan
Head of Soft Facilities Management, Facilities,
NHS Lothian

Submitted on 17/05/2023 at 13:02
Published on Care Opinion at 13:02

Dear funnyyz65,

Thank you for allowing us to respond to your comments. We are very sorry for your experience in our restaurant. The management team investigated the matter immediately when it was brought to their attention and identified the member of staff concerned who has had the matter raised with them.

In addition, the incident has led to a general reminder being given to all staff that we are there to support staff, parents, patients and visitors while they are in the hospital and that we should try to do whatever we can to achieve this. We hope that any future visit to our restaurant will be a more positive experience.

Thank you for taking the time to tell us your experience.

Kind regards,

Danny Gillan

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Update posted by funnyyz65 (a parent/guardian)

Hi we are back in the hospital again with my youngest and I’m saddened to say I’ve not seen much if any improvement in the cafe.

Food is served between 12-2pm only with absolutely no exception. It is a fantastic resource as it’s the only place to access hot food in the sick kids. However I’d rather not eat or walk around the hospital to the RIE’s canteen where there’s a bigger selection with a larger quantity served for longer.

The upstairs cafe does not take into consideration parents with young children/babies and that there schedules do not follow a pattern of allowing their parents to dash to get hot food in a 2hr window.

It’s an unnecessary stress and strain on families already in a high stress and emotional environment.

Response from Danny Gillan, Head of Soft Facilities Management, Facilities, NHS Lothian 5 months ago
Danny Gillan
Head of Soft Facilities Management, Facilities,
NHS Lothian

Submitted on 04/12/2023 at 14:01
Published on Care Opinion at 14:01

Dear funnyyz65,

We are really sorry to hear about your experience when using the restaurant on the 4th floor in the hospital. We understand the benefit that this service offers to parents whose children are patients in the hospital and do try to meet those needs. Your comments have been fed back to the staff in the restaurant and we will endeavour to be more flexible with our service in the future. We have already brought forward our opening time to 7.30am for hot beverages and if there are food items on the hotplate before the 8am breakfast time these are available for purchasing. From 8am till 14.00 we have toasties, flat breads, sandwiches and other produce continuously on sale. At the end of the breakfast period, if there are hot items remaining on the hotplate after 11am, we continue to sell these until we sell out or there is no longer any demand for them.

We cannot guarantee that the full range of dishes for any given service period will be available in advance of ‘opening time’ as we try to ensure that the dishes are as fresh as they can be and therefore not prepared too far in advance, however, in future, if an item is on the servery we will serve it to you.

We hope that the next time you visit the restaurant, your experience is a more positive one.

Kind regards,

Danny Gillan

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Update posted by funnyyz65 (a parent/guardian)

Hi Danny thanks for your response. However what you have said is not what is happening. The staff are extremely strict with little to no flexibility at all.

My bigger problem however was the lack of food after 1pm. Waiting for Doctors rounds etc meant when I did get the chance to go up there was nothing to have. I asked the staff if they had anything to which the response was once the foods gone for the day that’s it. No option of even cooking some chips as they weren’t ready.

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