Producing the perfect Christmas dinner can be a stressful affair.

But spare a thought for the talented catering team at Southport Hospital who are preparing to serve up more than 400 traditional turkey dinners, and a vegetarian alternative of course, on December 25.

Nobody wants to be in hospital at Christmas, but a small army of catering staff are working hard to make sure patients and colleagues get to enjoy a festive dinner with all of the trimmings.

Catering Team Leader, Anthony Riley, has worked every Christmas Day since taking the job seven years ago and is dedicated to providing the best quality meals possible.

He said: “Being in hospital at any time of the year can be hard, but especially at Christmas.

“Our teams work extra hard over the festive period to give our patients the best Christmas we possibly can, sometimes it’s the little extras that make a big difference. This time of year is really busy for us, but we really do love it. There is a lot of love, care and attention that goes into preparing all of the food for patients, and our staff too.

“We hope by putting in this extra effort over the festive period it lets our patients know that we want them to have as merry a Christmas as possible given the circumstances.’’

He added: “I can’t thank members of our team enough. They sacrifice spending time with their own family to make sure everyone in the hospital is able to have a Christmas dinner.’’

Hundreds of turkey crowns have been ordered, along with thousands of sprouts, a mountain of baby carrots, a ton of potatoes, thousands of pigs in blankets, thousands of stuffing balls, a sea of gravy, hundreds of Christmas puddings and of course gallons of brandy sauce.

And for the vegetarians there is a special dish of beetroot wellington.

Some of the ingredients will also be used to serve staff wanting a festive roast dinner in the hospitals’ restaurants in the days leading up to Christmas.

Following Christmas lunch, patients are treated to a buffet supper pack the team also get ready for the big day.

Anthony added: “The positive comments we get from patients and their families really makes all the hard work worthwhile. One man asked to see me the other week to tell me the food was better than he had eaten in one of the world’s best-known hotels in London and another asked us if we could do take away!

“You can’t get much better than that.’’