§ Mr. Dobsonasked the Secretary of State for Defence to what extent each Ministry of Defence hospital has used commercial contractors to meet its domestic catering and laundry requirements; what financial savings each has made as a result; and how much the money saved has been used to improve patient care.
§ Mr. Ian StewartThere are no centrally placed commercial contracts for domestic catering in any MOD United Kingdom Service hospitals.
All Army, Royal Air Force and Royal Navy hospitals in the United Kingdom contract out their laundry, except Royal Navy hospital, Haslar, which has its own laundry. The use of civilian laundry contractors is a very long-established practice and therefore estimates of financial savings are not available. However, improvements in patient care would be related to many other factors and not normally directly associated with cost-saving exercises in hospital administration or logistics.