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Maneesh Bakshi
Doha
The kitchen facility of the recently opened Hamad Medical Corporation's (HMC) Medical City Hospitals is considered the biggest healthcare kitchen in the region with the capacity to provide patients with up to 4,000 healthy and nutritious meals every day, Reem al Saadi, HMC's Director of Dietetics and Nutrition has said.
Speaking during a media tour of the facility, Saadi noted that the meals cater to more than 65 different diets, accommodating patients with a range of allergies and other health concerns.
"We cater to different diets at any given time and this includes patients with swallowing issues and those with specific macro or micro-nutrient requirements. We know that nutritious meals play a role in the healing and recovery process and while patients are in hospital, diet is a priority and can govern how quickly a patient recovers. Every meal has to go through a strict process and is planned with dietitians according to the individual needs of the patients," she said.
According to her, the kitchen facility is specially designed with zero tolerance for any possibility of cross-contamination of food during various stages of its preparation by the team of trained staff that numbers over 300 personnel consisting of dietitians, chefs, and stewards each of whom is involved in different stages of the food preparation process as well as 150 staff employed to clean and ensure that the hygiene standards are met.
"The menus are balanced to ensure that there is variety and that a day's complete menu over breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks delivers the nutrition and calories needed to meet the health requirements of patients. Much planning goes into each dish, which is tested several times and assessed by dietitians before being added to the menu. The most popular dish among patients is chicken biryani with raita salad," Saadi added.
Explaining the workings of the kitchen, Ferlyn Dias, executive chef catering at HMC, said,"The state-of-the-art kitchen is designed to have separate sections in the form of assembly lines to handle different food items such as chicken, fish, bakery, and dairy items and also for processing, receiving, thawing, and sending out meals for delivery to the patients."
"Once the food is ready to be transported to the wards, it is carried through special temperature controlled electro-calorific trolleys which can maintain the temperature of the food within the prescribed limits for at least two hours during which it is transported to the patient wards,"he noted.
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