NHS backroom staff thanked for vital work

Patients receive more than four million welcome cups of tea served by NHS support staff over the course of a year in Lincolnshire.

It’s just one of the many behind-the-scenes services ancillary staff provide and their work is being recognised during the National Estates and Facilities Day tomorrow (June 18), which will be marked in NHS settings across the county.

Lincolnshire Integrated Care Board (ICB), Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT) and Lincolnshire Community and Hospitals NHS Group (LCHG) are inviting more than 1,300 estates and facilities colleagues to take a break during the day and reflect on all their hard work and achievements. 

Estates and facilities covers a wide range of roles, many hidden behind the scenes, but all critical to the running of the county’s hospitals, mental health units, more than 40 community sites and dozens of GP surgeries. They also make a vital contribution to the experience of patients and staff. 

The team includes porters, switchboard and helpdesk teams, catering teams, housekeepers, deep clean teams, maintenance teams, linen services, capital project teams and so many more. 

They are also responsible for the multi-million-pound developments and structural upgrades taking place across the county’s hospitals and mental health units, as well as managing the day-to-day services, buildings and critical infrastructure. 

Every year across the county’s hospitals, mental health units and NHS community settings: 

• Housekeepers and teams serve patients more than 4 million cups of tea and more than 1.2 million meals  
• Porters help more than 60,000 patients get to where they need to be in the hospitals and can walk up to 10 miles in a shift 
• Linen services supply more than 3.7 million pieces of linen 
• Deep cleaning teams deep clean 80 wards using hydrogen peroxide vapour machines  
• Hospital restaurants serve more than 150,000 hot meals to patients, visitors and staff 
• Switchboard teams handle more than 3,000 calls every day 

 

Jacqui Bunce, Programme Director, Strategic Partnerships, Planning and Estate at NHS Lincolnshire ICB, said: “It’s really important we recognise the wide range of roles across the system-wide team in Lincolnshire, especially since they are often ‘unsung heroes’ who play an important part in the NHS team that delivers health and care day in, day out.  

“They keep us all fed and watered and the hospitals and community settings running efficiently, as well as maintaining our buildings and creating the state-of-the-art environments that our patients and colleagues deserve. 

“They work tirelessly behind the scenes and it is great to have a national day where all of their hard work is recognised and we can take the opportunity to say a big thank you to them all.” 

Top picture shows Marie Whelan who is part of the switchboard team that handles more than 3,000 calls a day.

Merv Denton is part of the Portering Team at Lincoln County Hospital.

Ian Hughes is based in the post room at Lincoln County Hospital.