MORE local food suppliers are being used to improve meals served up to patients on hospital wards.

Dozens of the companies have been brought in to supply two-thirds of the products served at the University Hospital of North Staffordshire.

The change follows furious protests about meals being prepared in Wales and then driven 140 miles by lorry to the Potteries to be warmed up and served on wards.

It has been made possible because during the past two months, kitchens at the Hartshill complex have been extended to allow more fresh produce to be cooked on the premises.

The outcry over the previous system started in the summer of 2008 when international food giant Sodexo took over the multi-million pound catering contract at the hospital.

More than 4,000 meals were served to patients every day.

And nearly all of them were cooked at the company's Welsh plant before being chilled and transported to Stoke-on-Trent.

Patients complained about the quality of the food and criticised the environmental damage of the daily truck trips.

Hospital trust foundation director Andrea Green said: "We have taken the complaints we received about the food seriously and they have been the subject of many of the weekly contract meetings we hold with Sodexo.

"It was always the company's intention to enlarge the kitchens so more food can be cooked on the premises.

"But in listening to the comments that process has been brought forward to the past two months.

"It means 65 per cent of the meals now served to patients are locally-sourced from suppliers within 30 miles of this hospital.

"Since freshly-cooked food has been going onto the wards, the number of complaints has fallen considerably. And by buying locally we are also creating or helping preserve jobs in the area.

"All this is on top of Sodexo's decision to use Burslem potbank Steelite to supply the crockery in all its UK contracts throughout the UK."

She added that some of the protests about the taste of the meals could be down to the decision to remove harmful salt from the cooking process on the advice of hospital dieticians.

Most of the main courses are still ready meals cooked in Wales, then plated and warmed in Hartshill.

But now Potteries supplies are used for bulk items which dominate the other courses.

They include fruit and vegetables, milk, bread, butter, cheese and sandwiches.

The change is not costing the taxpayer more because the Sodexo contract is part of a bigger deal between the local NHS and the private sector that is delivering North Staffordshire's £400 million superhospital, which is due for completion in two years' time.

Under the private finance initiative, companies build, equip and maintain the facilities.

They also run non-clinical services in exchange for a payment of about £50 million a year for its 30-year duration.

At the start of the contract, complaints included the custard being so thick it had to be served in slices and a ham sandwich being offered to a Muslim.

Health unions compiled a dossier of the grievances to hand to management and local MPs joined the calls for changes.

Ray Fellows and his wife Beryl from the North Staffordshire Older People's Association were invited to inspect the newly-extended kitchens.

He said: "We were impressed with what we saw and it is promising that they are starting to use so much more fresh local produce.

"We were told they intend to go further when the new hospital is built and have food preparation kitchens on each ward."

Rob Lightfoot, of Meir Park, survived on chocolate bars and biscuits during his stay in the hospital last winter.

He said: "Having more locally-produced fresh food is a step in the right direction, but the proof will be in the eating."