Hospital Food (Animal Welfare Standards)

Debate between Andrew Smith and Dan Poulter

Wednesday 12th December 2012 Westminster Hall

[Dr Poulter]

Indeed. We are looking into that at the moment, with a committee and working party looking at how to roll out good practice.

If we have a mandatory system, we may stifle the potential of what we are seeing locally under the current system. My hon. Friend has highlighted many examples of good practice, and I could add to them: in Sussex, there is a good programme, from plough to plate, which is managed by the head of catering there, William McCartney; and there are other good examples in Nottingham and Scarborough. Local innovation is driving up standards, and that happens in different ways in different parts of the NHS. One of the fundamental principles in which we believe, and it has always been thus, is that hospitals are able to determine how they respond to local conditions. Only this Government have taken seriously the need to support and encourage local innovation better. Through the approach that we have adopted and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State’s interest in promoting good food in hospitals, we are now seeing many examples of local innovation driving up standards in local hospitals, and through such innovation we can identify and spread across the NHS better and good practice. The problem with a rigid framework or set of criteria is that it might stifle local innovation that can improve standards, as we have seen elsewhere in the NHS.

Our approach is for central Government to take an active interest in good hospital food for the benefit of patients, working through commissioning for quality and innovation payments. To promote good practice, the project is developing an exemplar pay framework within the CQUIN scheme, which enables health care commissioners to reward excellence by linking a proportion of providers’ income to the achievement of local quality improvement gains. We are developing two new CQUIN exemplars related directly to hospital food, one linked to the adoption of Government buying standards for food and one to excellence in food service. I hope that my hon. Friend is reassured by the fact that animal welfare is part of those standards. We are looking at linking CQUIN payments in the NHS to good, ethical Government procurement. We recognise and value the local innovation of various hospital food schemes, which have benefited patients from Scarborough to Sussex. That is better than a rigid framework and enables the NHS to learn from examples of good practice.

[Mr Andrew Smith]

The Minister referred to the more general application of Government buying standards. What is his response to the argument from the National Farmers Union that the standards would operate better if the red tractor standard of production was generally adopted as part of them?

[Dr Poulter]

Many of us are great fans of the NFU work to support the red tractor standard. Many great benefits can be obtained from British farmers, who often operate to higher standards of animal welfare and traceability. That is something that we are proud of, and there are great benefits for consumers in supporting such farmers. The Government therefore have an ethical framework for how food should be procured.

We are looking, through the CQUIN payments, at how to support and reward good practice in hospitals, taking into account the Government framework for welfare. When the NFU and other organisations highlight good local practice and support British farmers to lead the way in animal welfare through the red tractor standard, we want to ensure that we do not set up rigid frameworks that might prevent local hospitals from supporting such good ethical standards. Through local flexibilities that hospitals currently have, we are enabling the bar to be raised for animal welfare and the quality of hospital food.

Time forbids my going into greater detail, but we are encouraging friends-and-family testing in the NHS, putting patients and their relatives in charge of inspecting the quality of care and health care. That can be no more important than for hospital food. Recently, I visited Darlington hospital, which had had a patient-led inspection of hospital care, a key part of which was to look at hospital food, to ensure that every patient was served with nutritious food, cooked locally and on site.

A number of the issues raised in the debate cut across the responsibilities of Ministers in the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, so I will write to them and highlight the concerns expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Honiton today. In my Department, however, we encourage hospitals to use and maintain ethical standards in the buying of their food, but we also enjoy and support local flexibilities that benefit patients and raise standards throughout the NHS.