The event, taking place at Celtic Manor Resort, Newport in Gwent is being held within the boundaries of the Health Board named after the founder of the National Health Service, Aneurin Bevan, who championed free healthcare for all.
The location, 65 years on, may serve as a poignant reminder of the values upon which the NHS was founded. Bevan’s vision was for one NHS for all, where healthcare would be available free to everyone from all walks of life and one standard would meet the needs of every Briton.
This vision that has inspired the 2013 conference theme ‘1 HCA, 4 Nations, I Goal’.
The cause for concern among members is that devolution means each home country has developed its own standards and these can sometimes lead to contradictory levels of benchmarking and regulatory assessment.
This can result in a variance in the level and quality of services provided in some hospitals and healthcare trusts and boards.
The HCA supports the establishment of a uniform measure for quality service across the four nations of Wales, Scotland, England and Northern Ireland.
And its conference programme is focused on uniting healthcare catering services and working together to develop and share best practice.
Lesley Griffiths, minister for health and social services in the Welsh Assembly, will give the keynote address entitled “Food for Thought – An Insight into Hospital Catering and Nutrition in the Wales of the Future”.
Next up is a presentation “Dying the Death of a Thousand Cuts – Can the NHS Survive the Attempts to Kill It Off?” by journalist Ally Fogg. With the NHS tasked to reduce its budget by £20bn by 2015, Fogg looks at what the NHS is going to look like in the future and how far it may stray from Nye Bevan’s original vision.
Focusing on the huge cost to the NHS of improvement targets, Nick Grimshaw from Blackpool Teaching Hospitals will examine the potential impact on staff of all disciplines.
National vice chairman Andy Jones will then look at “The HCA – Driving Change and Improvements”, outlining the measures introduced by the HCA and launching the updated HCA “Good Practice Guide for the Provision of Meals and Hydration at Ward Level”.
The final session of the day will be the Food Safety Forum, which will examine a range of issues relating to food safety.
On April 12 Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson will set the mood with her views on why ‘the time is now’ for healthcare professionals to step up a gear to protect the nation’s much loved NHS.
Lucy Jones, consultant dietitian, nutritionist and co-presenter of Channel 4’s The Food Hospital will explain the progress being made in treating disorders that had previously relied on drugs or other therapies, with changes in nutrition and food consumed.
Leading a session entitled “Nearly a Beatles Track ... When I’m 65”, Janine Roberts, programme director with the Malnutrition Task Force, will explore how the population’s increased longevity will impact on the lack of joined up care in hospital and community settings.
Jennifer French, deputy head of mental health & vulnerable groups division with the Welsh Government, will then examine what systems and menu patterns need to be put in place to ensure that all mental health patients are empowered to make the same choices as patients in acute settings.
The conference will wind up with a panel discussion on hospital food production which will seek feedback and opinions on the topic “Central Production Units – Genius or Folly, Brilliance or White Elephant?”
On the panel will be Paul Freeston, chief executive of Apetito; John Hughes, head of catering at Nottingham University Hospitals and Alex Jackson of the food and farming alliance Sustain.