THE food services of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) is currently being assessed by the Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) in order to ensure that it is meeting the appropriate standards.
This is coming from CEO of the QEH, Dr. Dexter James, who said that all of this forms a part of their Achieving Improved Measurement (AIM) initiative, which was launched earlier this year. He was speaking during the Annual Queen Elizabeth Hospital Christmas Service on Tuesday in the Auditorium.
He said that this AIM initiative ensures that there is continuous enhancement in the services that they provide at the health-care institution.
“One of the most significant developmental initiatives embarked on during the year on the service side has been the launch of the ‘AIM High for Excellence and Quality’. The acronym A.I.M. stands for Achieving Improved Measurement, which epitomises the requirement of continuous improvement.”
The CEO said that there are five pillars which this initiative encompasses and each one of them targets a specific area of the services provided by the hospital, such as the need to have a baby friendly hospital, the necessity of having accredited laboratory services and the importance of having proper food services.
“Under this initiative, the intention is the pursuit of hospital accredi-tation and credentialing of selected services in furtherance of the overall vision. This programme is built around five pillars – Hospital-wide Accreditation (ISO 15189), Baby Friendly Hospital re-certification, Laboratory Accreditation, Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) Certification to Improve Food Safety and the Code of Practice for Information Security Management (ISO 27001).”
He said that it was just a month ago that they succeeded in attaining their laboratory accreditation and now they are working on ensuring that their food services are up to par.
“You would recall that it was only in November, our laboratory attained the prestigious award of accreditation from a reputable body – the Jamaica National Agency for Accreditation (JANAAC). Today as we speak, surveyors are currently on the ground assessing our food services operations for HACCP certification. I am confident that within the next nine months, this package of credentialing of services would be complete.” (PJT)
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