Operation Hospital Food with James Martin

James Martin's campaign to transform hospital food becomes more ambitious than ever. This time, he is determined to find a way to improve patient meals on a national scale and bring about change in as many NHS hospitals as possible. After appealing to the public to send him their own experiences of hospital food, James reveals shocking examples of what is currently being served throughout the UK. James also visits individual kitchens to tackle their particular problems, starting at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Harlow, Essex, where the team have an overspend that has put the survival of the department at risk. As the hospital's catering manager prepares to retire after 27 years at the helm, can James help him turn the department's finances around - and will that be enough to save the kitchen staff's jobs?

James Martin's campaign to improve the food served to NHS patients picks up pace, as he invites chefs from hospitals across the country to attend a cookery school at his home. As they reveal some of the fundamental problems they face, and James hears real enthusiasm to do things better, he starts to develop a plan he hopes will benefit all hospitals - and patients - nationwide. But for it to work, he needs to persuade some key people to come on board. Meanwhile, James tackles an aspect of hospital food no-one has tried taking on before: the children's meals. Working with the team at the Royal Oldham Hospital, can he come up with a plan to give younger patients food they'll actually want to eat - and satisfy the very particular tastes of one of the ward's most outspoken patients? James also continues working with the staff at Harlow to turn around the kitchen's finances - and save their jobs.

As his plans to tackle hospital food on a national level begin to take shape, chef James Martin also rolls up his sleeves to tackle problems at individual hospitals. James discovers that catering for patients does not have to stop on the wards, as he helps set up a new initiative in Chesterfield designed to help old people returning home after being discharged. Plus it is the first day of his new children's menu in Oldham. Has he found a way to serve nutritious versions of the meals children want to eat? Meanwhile, James's ideas to turn things around at Harlow hit a stumbling block as the team find it hard to get hold of the ingredients they need.

James Martin puts the final touches to the idea he hopes will mean every hospital can serve its patients the healthy, tasty food they deserve. But will his ideas and recipes get the official seal of approval from nutritionists? And in Harlow, it is the team's first day rolling out James's new ideas. Will they be enough to secure the kitchen's future? With the hospital considering switching to a system of bought-in meals, James visits an NHS food production plant to see if that type of catering is as bad as he has always feared. Plus he catches up on the latest at some of the hospitals he has helped in the past to see how the ideas he introduced continue to make a difference.

In the final episode of the series, James Martin prepares to unveil the idea he hopes can make a real difference to the food served in every NHS hospital, in front of a packed room full of NHS chefs and bosses. Can he persuade them to change their current cooking practices and adopt his? For James it is the culmination of years of hard work, but making a speech in front of so many of the people who can make his plans a reality is a far cry from the kitchen environment where he feels most comfortable, and he calls on the support of some familiar faces to help win the audience round. Also, James makes his final visit to Harlow, where there is a big surprise for kitchen boss Andy. And James returns to Chesterfield to accompany the first patient who will be taking home one of the hospital's new grocery bags to help them readjust to life at home.