Operation Hospital Food with James Martin

James Martin's mission to improve hospital catering right accross the country. As he begins work with the team at Birmingham's Royal Orthopaedic, has he underestimated the scale of the task ahead? The kitchen staff face losing their jobs thanks to a growing overspend and shocking levels of waste, so as James starts trying to turn things around, he goes back to basics to understand why it is that no-one has any idea how many people they're cooking for. As tempers rise, there's a row with chef Gaz over custard and James meets patients to see what they think of the quality of the food. He also revisits Scarborough General Hospital to see if the team there have kept up with the improvements he introduced.

James Martin continues with his mission to improve Britain's hospital food. Today as he continues working through the problems at Birmingham's Royal Orthopaedic, he realises that if he really wants to affect change at more than one hospital, then he's going to need some help. He invites some of the country's best known chefs to his home to see if he can persuade them to give up their time for free and work to tackle the food at a hospital in their local area. Will they agree to come on board? Back in Birmingham there are tears and disagreements as James sets out to crack the problems leading to the kitchen's terrible problem with waste. But are the team taking on board what he's telling them? And James is invited to help with a new menu being rolled out across every NHS hospital in Wales - although an unexpected problem is quickly revealed.

James Martin's ambition of seeing healthy, nutritious food served to patients everywhere steps up a gear as the brigade of top class chefs he's persuaded to help out start work in their local hospitals. James and Chris Tanner are tasked with creating new easy to swallow meals for stroke patients throughout Devon and Cornwall, Gaulton Blackiston is challenged with finding ways to generate more money to be spent on patients in Norfolk and Stephen Terry continues trying to tackle a surprising complication with a dish he wants to be put on the new Welsh menu. Meanwhile in Birmingham James shows the team how he'd like things done as he takes over as head chef for the day. And to show how easy it is to utilise fresh, local produce on the menu he takes the kitchen department on a trip to a nearby farmers' market.

James Martin and his brigade of chefs put into action the changes they've planned for hospitals across the UK. In Birmingham that means trying out an ordering system James believes will solve some of the kitchen's fundamental problems. But to succeed the whole team has to work together like never before - and even if it works, can it really make any difference to the amount of wasted food? To prove fresh food doesn't have to cost more, James joins chefs Paul Merrett and Lawrence Keogh as they try and improve the choice for patients at London's Royal Free. And James and Stephen Terry meet the health minister for Wales to see what she makes of the dishes they've come up with for the All-Wales menu - and see if she can resolve a situation with suppliers that seems absurd.

In the final programme of the series, James Martin and his team of chefs find out whether they've managed to make a difference to the food in the hospitals they've been working with and discover if the most important people involved - the patients - notice any improvement. In Birmingham it's the culmination of everything in the kitchen staff have worked for. Can they convince James they've really changed and put their problems behind them? And James comes up with a plan to take his mission further forward - but it involves getting together all the key decision makers in the world of health, including government ministers. Will they be interested in hearing what he has to say?