Focus on Portering

Working hard behind the scenes at Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH), the Portering team carries out a myriad of duties that keep the hospital ticking over. When asked what a porter does, many of us would assume it involves moving patients to and from wards, collecting blood products and delivering specimens. But delve a little bit deeper and it becomes apparent that the work of the Portering team is remarkably varied.

From gas manifold changes, goods deliveries and responding to fire alarms, to furniture and equipment moves, the list of tasks completed by the team is almost endless. The Portering team is also responsible for sorting the thousands of letters and receipting hundreds of parcels that arrive every day.

And all this is undertaken by a team that is on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

The work of the Portering team impacts every patient that comes to GOSH. Not only do the porters send out appointment letters, they also deliver the beds and cots to the wards and transport medical supplies so that the clinical teams can provide appropriate care to our patients.

“We are on target to complete our most productive year ever”, says Portering and Task Management Manager Mark Davis. “If we continue at our current work rate we will have conducted around 45,000 tasks by the end of 2011. We are a small, but vital cog in a large wheel.”