Michaela McAleer has been working at the William Harvey hospital for 15 months and six months ago took up the role of restaurant team leader. Here’s what Michaela and her team have been doing during the COVID-19 changes at the hospital.

“Working in the restaurant at William Harvey Hospital during COVID-19 has been interesting and challenging. While it has been quiet in the restaurant itself, due to being closed to the public, other areas of our work have changed and kept us extremely busy.

“We have had to adapt the way that staff in the hospital are catered for, making sure that grab-bags are ready and delivered to wards. The team have been fantastic – both 2gether and agency staff, to get these delivered. There are two volunteers delivering drinks to the ward staff, they come in from 11.30am until 1.30pm to deliver bottles of drinks around the hospital to keep staff hydrated and also make sure that the staff carrying out swab testing in the car parks have refreshments.

“There is good morale in the team. At first staff were a little scared, but with the clarification of where to wear PPE on site, the support of security around social distancing behaviour and the tools put out in the catering department and clear communication coming through they feel more confident in their working environment.

“We are also making sure that staff living in the accommodations on site have what they need and we have been delivering hot meals to staff that need to self-isolate. We have set up a beverage station in the post-grad area for those staff resting there too.”

Spencer Williams, Catering Manager, said: “The team have adapted very well to the recent change in demand, it has been inspiring to see how the team have helped new employees, agency staff and volunteers get up to speed and deliver such great service in a very short time frame. I am continually impressed with the results.”

William Harvey Hospital staff catering in numbers:

• 1,700 grab bags delivered daily to staff in the hospital by a team of seven
• 750 drinks delivered to staff per day
• 8,000 donations of Easter eggs, as well as other food donations distributed to staff across the hospital.