FOOD company Granada Healthcare is taking the unusual step of inviting members of the public to dine in a new basement restaurant at Wycombe Hospital.

The food company bosses say they want everyone to visit the new restaurant in the basement to sample the freshly-prepared food at lunch and dinner times.

South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust spokesman Martin Leaver said that members of the general public were not usually encouraged to eat at the hospital.

Mr Leaver said: "The traditional role of the staff restaurant is to feed staff, patients and hospital visitors -- it's like any other hospital restaurant in that respect."

Veronica Noble, of Granada Healthcare, said: "We have got permission to serve people from outside the hospital."

However, the restaurant will not be providing food for the patients. Ms Noble added: "There are 300 patients here, and we cannot provide this food for them because the point about it is that it is all freshly prepared.

"For example, we have a wok on the stove here and you cannot wheel a wok into the ward and start cooking for people."

The trust already pays the company to provide the catering services but Granada Healthcare will collect all the profits from the new venture.

Granada Healthcare, which is related to the company that runs the Granada service stations, plans to open a chain of similar restaurants in other hospitals. The company has been planning the chain since last November.

At last month's South Buckinghamshire NHS Trust board meeting, members complained about the company's service. For example, members complained that the food was sometimes cold and served late.

Mr Leaver said: "The trust's board expressed concerns about the catering contract and top-level talks have been held about this.

"There will be a further report at the next trust's board meeting."

Food served at the restaurant ranges from jacket potatoes to pizzas and a different ethnic dish every day.

This week dishes included lamb rogan josh, Texan chilli beef jacket potatoes, and big pan Thai golden chicken curry.

Hospital electrician Terry Boxall ate roast pork with vegetables followed by bread and butter pudding in the restaurant on Monday.

He said: "It wasn't bad at all -- it's better than it used to be before they revamped it. The only thing I would say about it is that all the fast food should have been at the end of the counter nearest the till so that you could see what was on offer when you went up."

The hospital's assistant general manager Wendy Keen also had the roast pork. She said: "It was very nice -- I think they are trying hard to make it better."

Bucks Free Press reporter Chris Herbert tried the lamb rogan josh and said it was very tasty.

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