Contract talks surrounding a new cafeteria provider at the Chatham-Kent Health Alliance have stalled.
As it stands right now the hospital handles cafeteria food in-house, but have been in talks to outsource it. Hospital COO Sarah Padfield says talks with a potential franchisee have hit a sticking point over renovations.
"The challenge with that space is it's one of the oldest sections of the hospital, so it's right in the centre core," says Padfield. "So we know there's a lot of old stuff, so to start putting in some new ventilation and some other things that are required is going to require us to do a bit more extensive work than we had initially anticipated."
Padfield says they set aside $200,000 for the renovations and hope to have negotiations finalized by the end of January. She says the franchisee they're in talks with is a household name. No jobs will be lost in the transition and patient food would still be provided by in-house kitchen staff.