Madam,

Regarding your article on page 8 of the editions dated 26 September, about the food hygiene inspection that resulted in a classification of 2 (improvement necessary) for Bronglais Hospital, I would like to take issue with the statement attributed to the health board that ‘there were no concerns over food hygiene or safety’. They claim that the problem was due to issues around ‘process’.

There may be many aspects of a catering operation covered by the term ‘process’, but almost all will be safety critical and by definition shortcomings would have created risk. In this situation, if there were no concerns over food hygiene or safety, there most certainly should have been.

We should of course welcome Joe Teape’s statement that an action plan has resulted in the hospital’s rating of 5 being restored. Ceredigion council and other bodies with food hygiene responsibilities issue detailed and helpful guidance, particularly emphasising the need for appropriate food safety management procedures. To ensure that Bronglais continues to have standards that would be assessed as level 5 in the future, could I ask him to take personal responsibility for purging Bronglais’s catering operations of the mindset that seems to accept that procedures and processes are some sort of optional ‘add on’. In fact they, and the associated staff training and supervision, are the vital building blocks that ensure the continuing safety of the food they provide.

Yours etc, David Hughes, Troed yr Aur, Aberystwyth.

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