Dawn Palmer from Northumbria Healthcare Facilities Management has been shortlisted for the ‘Hospital Catering of the Year’ award in the Public Sector Catering Awards. 
The awards celebrate individuals and teams that work within the public sector, with the hospital category highlighting those who have demonstrated an improvement in patient, staff and visitor meals.
Dawn’s role originally focused on catering for staff in our Wellbeing Centre, where she identified the need for more variation in the menus. She listened to suggestions from staff to introduce new menus and regularly offer specials.
In developing the new menu, she also worked closely with the trust’s BAME network to ensure the options were culturally diverse and representative of the ethnic groups of staff in the trust.
Now, Dawn works as Catering Superintendent and oversees patient and visitor catering across multiple sites, in addition to managing the Wellbeing Centre.
With patient catering being new to her, she spent time with managers at other sites, our suppliers, and nutritionists and dieticians to learn everything there is to know to create meals that aid recovery.
Speaking about her nomination, Dawn said: “I am so pleased to be nominated for the Public Sector Catering Award by my colleagues. I absolutely love my role and enjoy the variety and challenges it brings.
“I would like to thank Northumbria for being such a forward-thinking trust and giving me the support and freedom to put new ideas in place.”
Damon Kent, managing director of NHFM: “Dawn is pro-active in everything she does whether that’s developing her own skills, developing the skills of those around her or providing solutions to problems she’s identified.
“The changes that she has put into place have had excellent responses from staff, patients, and visitors.”
The award ceremony takes place on Thursday 4 April in London, and we wish Dawn, and the rest of the finalists, the best of luck.