A NURSING chief will be serving meals to patients as part of NHS Change Day.

Director of nursing and quality at Dorset County Hospital, Alison Tong, will hit the wards at the Dorchester hospital next week as part of the initiative.

She has pledged to undertake a meal service every week on a different ward in the hospital.

Change Day on Monday, March 3 is a national day of action during which staff, patients and anyone else who cares about the future of the NHS pledges to make one positive change to make it better.

From sharing a meal with a patient at their bedside to experiencing what it feels like to spend the day in a wheelchair, pledges have poured in from all over the country.

Mrs Tong’s pledge will be an opportunity for her to go back on the wards and speak to staff and patients and find out about the day-to-day work that goes on there.

Last year 31,482 online pledges were made in the South West for Change Day and around 150 people have already joined the Change Day movement so far this year.

Around half a million individuals nationwide are expected to take part on the day itself.

The initiative started last year after a conversation on Twitter between junior doctors and improvement leaders about what clinicians could do to improve care for their own patients.

It caught the imagination of staff and patients all over the country and grew into a social movement that generated nearly 200,000 pledges to make one small positive change to the NHS.