Health trust's mighty Christmas menu

For starters you’ve got 400 portions of Florida Cocktail and 200 kilos of soup.

Then there’s 200 kilos of sliced turkey, more than 100 kilos of poached salmon in white wine, 200 mushroom and stilton bakes, maybe 90 to 100 kilos of roasted potatos, 80 kilos of creamed potatos, 70 kilos each of sprouts and carrots and swedes and 110 side salads, with 60 litres of gravy on tap.

There’s even 20 kilos of minced turkey set aside for those on soft diets. And a small lagoon of optional cranberry sauce.

And to round it all off, there’s 900 portions of Christmas pudding, 550 mince pies, 250 servings of rice pudding, 15 kilos of strawberry mousse and the same amount of luxury fruit salad.

That’s the order for Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust for their festive offering for patients at Wigan Infirmary, Leigh Infirmary and Wrightington Hospital.

But all the planning and preparation is certainly worth for it for the catering staff, based at the Leigh site.

Andrew Beddeson, hotel services manager for the trust, said: “We try to make the Christmas meal for our patients just like it would be at home and to bring some form of normality for them.

“It’s one of our most productive times of the year and extremely hard work. We’re working 365 days a year and we’re open 24 hours a day at the Leigh Infirmary site.

“I am so proud of the staff that I work alongside with and their commitment to providing excellent service is commendable.

“We go out of our way if someone comes in with a special dietary requirement, we even move the mountain to get there.

“I think it’s one of the best times of the year, to be honest, when it comes to Christmas everyone’s in their best spirit.

“The morale of the catering department is always great at this time of year.”