In this post, John Steward, Manager of our Long Term Hire Division, blogs about our temporary hospital kitchens.
As PKL’s hospital kitchen hire specialist, I have extensive experience of arranging temporary kitchen hires for hospitals. There are many reasons why a hospital may require temporary kitchen facilities, such as during planned refurbishments or emergencies such as fire or flood.
Kitchen facilities play a vital role in hospitals and I know the unique set of challenges faced by hospitals requiring temporary facilities. With that in mind, I’ve addressed the top 5 challenges and concerns that hospitals often come to us with when they need temporary kitchen facilities.
I hope this post will give you an insight into how we can help hospitals. Please feel free to
get in touch if you’d like to discuss your requirements of if you’d
like me to prepare a free bespoke kitchen contingency plan for you.
1. Specialist Kitchen Facilities
From my experience working within the acute care hospital sector, I know that many hospital kitchens have to produce food to specific dietary requirements. The exact facilities required can vary from hospital to hospital, and is vitally important for the health and wellbeing of patients.
We have a fleet of over 10,000 items of catering equipment and can work closely with hospital catering teams and dietary staff to provide each hospital with a temporary kitchen facility which is matched with the menu requirements. In the past, our specialist facilities have included temperature-controlled prep areas for the preparation of high risk meals, as well as facilities for the sterilisation of crocks and utensils.
2. Noise and Disruption on Site
No hospital wants teams of shouting workmen on site, mess and dirt everywhere or roads blocked for hours on end. That sounds like a nightmare to me too, so you’ll be pleased to know that we have polite, efficient drivers and engineers who are able to deliver our units at times to suit you, including evenings or weekends if preferred. We also plan delivery and installation in advance, which means our experienced team can get facilities installed quickly and efficiently, causing minimum disruption on site.
3. Quality and Reliability
When your staff and patients are relying on kitchen facilities to keep them well-fed, you’ll want to be sure that these facilities aren’t going to let you down. Not only are our kitchens purpose-built units designed specifically for catering use, they also contain commercial catering equipment which consists of trusted, professional brands. All units and items of equipment undergo thorough, regular maintenance to prevent breakdowns, and we can also supply our facilities with back-up generators which will kick in should power be lost, keeping the kitchen running without disruption.
4. Safety and Compliance
New clients often have questions about the suitability and safety aspects of portable kitchens, so here’s the info you need to know. Our kitchens are manufactured to the highest standard and incorporate the latest health and safety features. Features include a ventilation canopy, auto gas shut off, automatic fire suppression system, easy clean extraction system, infestation-proof construction, 500 lux lighting level, food-safe plastisol steel wall lining, non-slip safety flooring, and insulated fire regulated wall panels, ceilings and floors. Our kitchens also have food-safe wipe clean walls and stainless steel catering equipment, providing a hygienic, easy to clean food preparation environment.
5. Support and Service
I know that hospital kitchens are used from first thing in the morning to last thing at night, so we offer a level of service to support this. Our service and technical support lines are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and we can dispatch an engineer immediately should a kitchen emergency occur. Additionally, an engineer will be with you within 24 hours of all standard service callouts, and any minor matters will be attended to as soon as we have an engineer in the area.
In a follow up to yesterday's post, we are delighted to introduce you to the rest of the team who will be giving their insight as to some of the challenges and considerations involved in delivering both temporary and permanent commercial kitchen facilities.
They are also here to answer any questions you may have regarding the installation of temporary or permanent modular catering facilities or any thoughts you may have regarding the provision of commercial foodservice facilities.
Peter Schad – Commercial Director
Peter has been with PKL for over 20 years, and is responsible for all of our installations at major games as well as PKL’s Transworld Kitchens division. Peter has overseen large scale temporary kitchen installations at the last four Olympic Games, the last Winter Olympics, the last three Commonwealth Games, and the last two Asian Games, as well as recent overseas projects for a number of mining camps in Africa and two containerised facilities which have just been delivered for clients in Australia.
Peter's expertise lies in the design and delivery of large scale kitchen and dining facilities around the world, delivering multiple temporary catering facilities to large sites, and rapid deployment kitchen facilities for military, mining and humanitarian relief areas.
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Karen Rumsey - Project Consultant
Karen has been with PKL for nine years, and during this time has worked in both our temporary and permanent kitchen divisions. Karen has worked in our KitchenPods division for the last two years and has delivered a large number of permanent modular kitchens and food kiosks to the education, business & industry and healthcare sectors.
Working in PKL's permanent division has meant that Karen has built up a wealth of experience in designing permanent kitchen facilities and helping clients through the overall planning process if it is required to get a kitchen on site. A number of Karen's projects have included innovative exterior finishes, to match a client's branding or their own design, or to ensure that they blend in seamlessly on site with other existing buildings.
John Steward – Long Term Hire Sales Manager
John has been with PKL for over seven years and is our Long Term Sales Manager for the hire of temporary kitchens. John is vastly experienced in delivering both large and smaller scale projects ranging from single unit facilities to large scale kitchen and dining complexes which go on hire for a number of years, while has also previously worked in our Event Hire division.
John is specialised in providing solutions to the healthcare sector, in particular nursing homes undergoing refurbishments and large scale temporary complexes for food manufacturers who are looking to expand their production output. John’s work in the care home sector has led him to develop the “Care Home Kitchen,” a temporary kitchen facility ideal for nursing homes who are undergoing a kitchen refurbishment.
Ian Selwood - KitchenPod Sales Manager
Ian has worked at PKL for more than 12 years and within the foodservice industry for even longer! During his time at PKL, Ian has worked in our Long Term Hire and KitchenFM divisions, and has been sales manager for our permanent modular KitchenPods and Food Cubes for the last two years.
Ian's long career working within the foodservice industry means that he is extremely knowledgeable in all matters regarding commercial catering equipment, and is an expert when it comes to designing a kitchen facility that exactly meets the needs of the client. Ian has also spent time working on developing a number of procurement options for our permanent kitchens including our recently introduced lease hire offer.
We looking forward to bringing you contributions from all of our team over the next 12 months, providing you information on a wide range of issues involved within the supply of commercial foodservice facilities. Keep on checking back here for updates, and our first guest post next week!
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