Mike Duckett – Catering Services Manager at the Royal Brompton Hospital, London

This is the question that I asked a team of senior leaders earlier this year and immediately Mike Duckett’s name was put forward.  Others had heard of him and asked: Is he the guy who is making a big difference in the NHS and serving food that patients and their families want to eat?

I went to meet Mike and he has a big vision: to change the way people think and feel about ‘hospital food’ through having an excellent patient experience which is truly health-giving and potentially life-saving – nationally! The Royal Brompton Hospital is primarily a place that treats people who have heart and lung conditions often the result of their lifestyle choices. Indeed ‘choices’ is just what Mike is seeking to do – to educate people through the food that they eat in hospital, and that their families and friends eat when they visit them, and have them make a choice to eat what they want but made from organic, locally sourced, UK produced food. So people still get to eat what they want only they get all the health-giving goodness at the same time.

And it’s all about engaging others in delivering this experience. Mike is passionate about collaboration with others and to this end he and his team are working with Sustain to help them quantify, understand and reduce their environmental impacts  and linking up with other hospitals in the area, schools and care homes. He’s also in conversation with the Soil Association and looking to get the organic certification. The satisfaction and pride which Mike and his team take in sourcing the food, in the food being cooked to cater for the needs of the many different patient requirements all offer opportunities for them to make a bigger difference.

Leadership nudge: What do you want to be famous for? What is the bigger difference that you want to make?

By Anni Townend

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