A NEW contract to provide hotel services to East Kent hospitals, including the Queen Mother, Margate, has been awarded to Medirest.

The East Kent NHS Trust say the new contract, which starts in July and is worth £98m, will provide a more robust security service as part of the 'zero tolerance' campaign.

It will also base all cleaning standards against the new national NHS standard; address better hospital food requirements; meet responsibilities under the new deal for out-of-hours catering service; provide a new performance mechanism which links contract payment to performance; and replace all cleaning equipment and re-brand the restaurant facilities.

Additionally, having a single point of contact with one provider across the whole Trust will bring about significant advantages in terms of managing this large contract.

Under the terms of the new seven-year deal with Medirest, the company will provide catering services for more than 1,700 patients at the five hospitals in the area, as well as more than 8,000 staff and visitors.

In conjunction with the Trust, Medirest will refurbish the staff and visitor restaurants at all the hospitals and introduce its new 'the spice of life' food concept, which offers a variety of modern high street-style meal choices to suit special needs and tastes.

Medirest will also provide domestic, portering, security and vending services at the hospitals. The new deal extends the company's existing relationship with the Trust, which started in the mid-1990s.

Howard Jones, the Trust’s director of facilities, said: "This is the end of a nine month process during which we have been seeking to get the highest quality of service at the best price.

"We are looking forward to developing our existing relationship with Medirest across the whole of the Trust.

“There will be no redundancies and staff will be transferring to Medirest or the hospitals Trust depending on which areas they are currently working in."

Tony Heddon, Medirest business development director, said: "The Trust was determined to provide the best service for its patients and staff and recognised 'true' best value as key to the success of the contract.

"We are looking forward to continuing our partnership with them, providing a range of innovative service options that are flexible and responsive to the needs of patients, staff and visitors, but also deliver excellent value for money."