Local MP finds Poppies Community Café in full bloom
NSFT delighted to welcome Peter Aldous, MP for Waveney, for the formal opening of its flagship Poppies Community Café
Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) today welcomed Peter Aldous, MP for Waveney, for the official opening of its flagship community café, Poppies, at Carlton Court Hospital in Lowestoft.
Poppies Café has been providing patients and their loved ones, Carlton Court staff and the local community with fresh, healthy, home-made food and a wide variety of drinks since 20 March 2023. Today’s visit by Mr Aldous marks its formal opening.
Welcoming Mr Aldous to Poppies Community Café, NSFT’s Deputy Chief Executive and Chief People Officer, Cath Byford said: “In just two months, this great staff-led initiative has made a tangible impact on the experiences of patients, their visitors and loved ones and on the working lives of our dedicated staff who care for them. It is also contributing to the wellbeing of the local community, providing a welcoming space for groups and individuals to meet, eat and talk.”
Mr Aldous said: “I am delighted to declare the Poppies Community Café officially open. Achieving the best possible mental health for local people needs active contribution from all of those involved in the provision of health and care services. I believe that initiatives like the Poppies Community Café make a powerful contribution to promoting patient, staff and community wellbeing. I wish it every success for the future.”
Poppies Community Café is the brainchild of Sarah Nichols, the Trust’s Environmental lead for Older People's Inpatient Services at Carlton Court Hospital. She saw the potential for transforming an unused space within the hospital into a bright, welcoming and flourishing café facility, creating an asset for the hospital and the wider community.
Sarah said: “Before the café opened, our hospital’s food and drink provision for visitors and staff was limited to vending machines. Now we have a thriving community café that has transformed the experience of our patients and their loved ones when they come to visit. People are now able to sit in the café and share a meal or drink with their visitors and we know how much they value that normality. It gives patients waiting for hospital transport somewhere to sit and wait in comfort.
“The café is a big morale booster for staff who can enjoy a nutritious, freshly made meal together. We are seeing more and more community groups such as the Women’s Institute, allotment societies and local learning disabilities groups using the café as a meeting place and it’s a bonus for ambulance crews who are bringing patients into the three acute wards we are currently hosting for the James Paget Hospital at Carlton Court.
The café is open from 09.30 – 15.30 Monday to Friday, serving breakfasts and lunches with gluten-free, dairy-free, vegetarian and vegan options available every day. The catering is provided by Lowestoft family business TwinGo Catering run by friendly mother and daughter team Janette Bougard and Lucy Collins, who make everything from scratch and are focussed on providing balanced and healthy options for their customers.
Increasing sustainability throughout the organisation is a priority for the Trust and this has been factored into the day-to-day running of the café, with recyclable materials used wherever possible and local produce providing a sustainable way of supporting the area’s food producers.
Initiatives like the community café are just one of the ways that NSFT is demonstrating its commitment to improving the quality of the services it provides to the people of Norfolk and Suffolk. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) recognised the Trust’s improvement progress in February 2023, giving NSFT an increased overall rating of ‘Requires Improvement’, demonstrating that the Trust is moving forward positively at pace to improve, with 60% of services inspected now being rated as ‘good’.
Following the opening of the café, Mr Aldous met with Trust staff and leaders to hear about the ongoing work to ensure that all NSFT’s services consistently deliver excellent care. He visited Laurel Ward, which offers ongoing assessment and stabilisation of dementia care needs for people over 65 years in the Great Yarmouth and Waveney area. He also viewed the school facilities on the Trust’s specialist Dragonfly Ward, which was one of the services recently rated ‘good’ by the Care Quality Commission.
Thanking Mr Aldous for taking the time to visit, NSFT’s Chief Executive Stuart Richardson said: “Mr Aldous has been a stalwart supporter of NSFT and we value the opportunity to show him the ‘on-the-ground’ improvements that are making a difference to our patients every day.
“We know we have more to do and our improvement programme is aimed at building on, and sustaining, positive changes as well as making NSFT a great place to work. The advances we have made in the Dragonfly Unit, the opening of Poppies Community Café and on Laurel Ward show just how much can be achieved when we work together for the benefit of our patients and communities and is something from which we continue to build.”