Last week, an afternoon was dedicated to the study of how easy patients find it to open packaging on our patient food.

Our catering department at HRI teamed up with the Hospital Catering Association, NHS England & Sheffield Hallam University.

With a range of five different faces rating from 'sad' to 'happy', those taking part were asked to open the packaging, meanwhile a timer monitored how long it took them to do so. 

Afterwards, Maureen Davies, Sue Sedman, Lynn Moore and Kathy Green - our four participants, would score the effectiveness and ease of opening the packaging by using the faces provided, .

The selection of products being tested included a yoghurt-jelly pot, sandwiches ready-made, a packet of biscuits and pots of orange juice.

Assistant Manager of Catering services, Adrian Brown,told us: "If the study benefits our patients we are proud to be a part of this".

The aim was to determine how our patients over the age of 65 manage with the products given to them at meal times, and whether they are sufficient enough to not require assistance by measuring strength, dexterity and pack openability.