In hospital environments, it’s important we think about the welfare of both patients and staff. According to a recent NHS report, more than 80% of NHS staff believe their health and wellbeing have an impact on the care they give to patients with regular access to healthy food being one of the greatest concerns.

Since 2017, the UK’s healthcare sector has had several goals relating to staff wellbeing. These include:

  • Setting a health and wellbeing example for other industries
  • Improving staff wellbeing by providing healthy snacks
  • Reducing costs, as £2.4bn was lost to the NHS in 2017due to sickness
  • Ensuring the same healthy options are easily accessible to all members of staff, visitors and patients 24/7

Since the NHS is encouraging healthier choices across the board, we’re proud to play our part with more healthy choices in our vending machines.

Healthcare and hospital vending machine


Healthier vending is our department, and we have the credentials to back this up:

  • Over 50 years of vending experience
  • Providing over 30 NHS sites with healthy vending machines
  • Developing specialty healthy vending machines with 150 calories and under snacks
  • Wide variety of sugar-free drinks
  • Sustainable resources in-line with the Government Buying Standards (GBS)

CQUIN-Compliant Machine Planograms


Regardless of the machine type, we support the NHS in offering healthy food and drink choices. We do this thanks to our CQUIN-compliant planograms; these follow specific guidelines for hospital food. In practice, this means:

  • 80% of drinks lines stocked are sugar free (fewer than 5 grams of sugar per 100ml).
  • 80% of snacks have less than 250 calories
  • There is always a wide variety of healthy choices
  • We ensure the same variety of healthy choices is available to the night shift

Since the 2017/2019 CQUIN indicator is now part of the NHS 2019/2020 standard contract, it’s more important than ever that we help sites meet these guidelines.

Sugar-free commitment


The Vending People’s machines can offer a variety of 150-calorie snacks and sugar-free drink options. These allow us to fully support NHS foundations in their mission to reduce sales of sugary foods on their premises.

Our three unique pop up vending concepts in particular aim to provide innovative ways to help tackle some of today’s challenges like on the go healthy snacking.

We’re fully committed to helping patients, NHS staff and hospital visitors make healthy snack choices. We also know how essential hydration is to our wellbeing. As such, we also offer top-notch water dispensers as part of our vending options.

Sustainability commitment


We also aim to minimise our impact on the environment by operating in a sustainable way, meaning our NHS customers are able to meet their sustainable procurement as according to the Government Buying Standards (GBS).

Some of our eco-friendly actions include:

  • Our ‘Keep cup’ scheme
    • Including our cup wash vending solutions, which allow customers to make a difference one cup at a time by washing and reusing their sustainable cups
  • Energy efficient machines and power save modes
  • Our commitment to repairing a machine over replacing it’s parts

Technology and ease of use


Since we know how stressful working in healthcare can be, we work hard to offer NHS Foundations Trusts easy, hassle-free vending:

  • 24/7 access to drinks and snacks
  • Contactless payment
  • Interactive touch screens
  • Fully managed vending:
    • Technical maintenance with manufacturer-trained engineers
    • Retail analysts to help you stock what sells

Vending tailored to healthcare


While we have a detailed understanding of the vending industry, people are always at the heart of our business.

That’s why we’ve got a team dedicated to the healthcare sector, led by our Healthcare Sector Head, Paul Shaw.

Our approach is to tailor every vending machine solution—including their position and planograms—to each individual NHS hospital.

With our experience in vending, and our understanding of both the food standards and compliancy goals the healthcare sector must meet, we’re well-equipped to offer Foundation Trusts the supply options they need.

Paul Shaw

NHS Foundation Trusts


Although there are several areas in a hospital—with different vending needs—they all benefit from our dedicated healthcare team. Different areas include:

  • Wards
  • Waiting rooms and corridors
  • Reception and staff areas

Other healthcare sectors that benefit from healthy vending machines include:

  • GP practices
  • Care homes

Our commitment to the healthcare sector keeps evolving, and we aim to offer innovative solutions to support the NHS’ healthy living pledge.

Finance options


Our dedicated team advises NHS catering officers on several finance options, including free on loan options.

If you’d like to learn more you can get in touch through our online enquiry form, or read our FAQ on vending costs for a more detailed breakdown.