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Mark Edwards worked as a porter and then as a porter supervisor for nearly 3 years at Hull Royal Infirmary (part of Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, a large Acute Trust and one of the UK’s 27 Major Trauma Centres), working his way up to become porter manager where he spent an additional 5 years in the role. He was a member of the team at Hull which worked collaboratively with the team at Global View, as part of more than 100 Trust’s across the country who helped with feedback in the development of MyPorter, Global View’s porter task management software solution, which saw it’s first install within the hospital Mark worked in. Fast-forward 9 months and Mark has now taken the leap to leave behind the NHS for a role at Global View in a move which he sees as a case of “leaving the NHS to help the NHS”. Mark is leaving behind his beloved portering team within the NHS as he sees the opportunity at Global View as a route to be able to help the NHS in a bigger way, having seen first-hand how much benefit the MyPorter system can bring to a Trust, and he wants to use his knowledge and experiences with it to bring it to the attention of more hospitals across the country who he truly believes will see the benefits and reap the rewards from it, and overall help improve the NHS, the portering service as a whole and more importantly, patient care and experience. “It might seem odd to say that I feel I needed to leave the NHS to help the NHS, but effectively that is what I am doing. I want to teach other hospitals about how much of an impact the MyPorter system had at Hull and what it can do for their portering teams – it really did revolutionise the portering team there and brought the service into the 21st century. Before MyPorter, in certain areas of the hospital, jobs were written as magnetic notes and stuck to a board with no visibility of porter’s, number of tasks or records to show peaks in demand” said Mark Edwards. In the 9 months that Mark has been using MyPorter with his portering teams, Hull Royal Infirmary has expanded its acute bed space with the opening of an extension, seeing the addition of about 40-50 new beds. Before, they may have had to take on extra portering staff to ensure these new beds were catered for, but with the use of MyPorter allowing them to plan better, coupled with the improved efficiency they saw from using it, it meant they were able to cope with the staff already available to them. Mark added: “One of the things I like to say to people from other portering teams who visited us at Hull (to see what it is like to use MyPorter in a real life setting) is that increased capacity doesn’t always mean there is a need for increased staff, and that’s all thanks to the way MyPorter works – the data and insights it provided us with, enabled us to make the right decisions at the right time”. Mark knows from experience that doing a difficult job in difficult circumstances isn’t easy, and although the NHS are battling hard to maintain their successes, from the knowledge Mark has gained in his role as a porter manager, he knows Global View have created a tool that can help the NHS battle this pandemic, the aftermath and continue to support them well into the future. “What I liked about Global View as a porter manager is that it was obvious from the beginning that they want to help you and look to do this by building a long-term partnership with you to ensure your hospital’s portering teams are running as effectively as possible” said Mark. In addition to Hull and Sunderland Royal Hospital (who have recently agreed to roll the system out across their entire site, after initially starting solely within the Radiology Department), other hospitals such as Barnsley, Leighton and Walsall have also being reaping the benefits of such a partnership and now the MyPorter family has grown rapidly with the additions of 8 further hospitals who are live or due to go live over the next couple of months. Mark is now on this side of the fence, and he is looking forward to building on this further, as well as being able to tell those who are yet to find out about MyPorter all about his belief in its ability and what it can do for their Trust. To chat to Mark or another member of the MyPorter team at Global View, please email: mark.edwards@globalviewsystems.co.uk myporter@globalviewsystems.co.uk
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Hull porters are leading the way in patient experience
In hospitals, across the country, portering services are working harder than ever, in extreme circumstances to get people, equipment and supplies to the right location on demand, which The Secret Patient claims to have been, like most other general members of the public, largely unaware of the amount of work that goes into portering, of which she claims to now have a new appreciation for, after an unfortunate need for a stay in hospital.
This portering workload she has seen first-hand isn't just a case of logistical efficiency; it's people's lives.
And it needs to be, take *Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, for example. The service runs between two sites, five miles apart with over 1000 beds, dealing with around a million patients every year under normal circumstances. But these are not normal circumstances, and this past 18 months, hospitals are having to adapt, reorganise, improvise and learn like never before with limitations placed on virtually every aspect of the service. Reliance on ever-dependable NHS staff, with the support of smart technology, is delivering much-needed efficiency and consistency.
A unique view - Patient Experience
The ‘Secret Patient’ Feedback from one patient’s perspective (better known to her friends as Joanna) whom has spent a week at Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, gave us a personal glimpse of her experience.
“For me, a week in Hull Royal Infirmary, even with its friendly staff and high-rise panoramic views, felt like a very long time. For a start, I’m sure I wasn’t alone in feeling the effects of the combination of the ‘no visitors’ policy and blanket coverage ‘PPE’. In fact, most days my unlikely sanity saviours turned out to be the porters who arrived doing what porters do best, to be fundamentally human. Being pushed along near-deserted corridors in a ‘wheely’ chair, negotiating turns and corners with the wind in my hair took me back to childhood, and was better than any pain relief! All the while, the porters are organising themselves on their unique form of porter communication wizardry or 'radio phones' as they call them (walkie-talkies you can text on is the best description I can think of).
After a couple of goes at this, I made a point of mentioning the 'radio phones' by way of striking up conversation. Every porter (male, female, all ages) talked with confidence about how they work and how reliant they are on them. ‘I couldn’t do my job without this’, said one porter, and I saw first-hand, what this means, and why it matters so much. Closed corridors, route diversions, 'off-limit' areas, and an obviously huge amount of operational disruption.
‘Our kit’
The radio chatter is direct, quick and, taken very seriously; also, the 'radio phones' are a source of local pride. Porters enthusiastically tell me that Hull hospitals were the first to have this tech (MyPorter as it’s apparently officially known) and add that very few hospitals in the UK have ‘our kit’.
On one trip, my porter was prompted that he hadn't acknowledged a change of location. With that, we did a swift turnaround to detour by ‘Porter HQ’ (a small office in the depths of the hospital) to make sure everything was okay? ‘Sorry about that’, he said as we set off again, ‘we all give these (taps his ‘kit’) our full attention and priority’.
I can vouch for the fact that they do, and it matters.
I’m now happy to report that I’m back home and on the mend, thankful as ever, to the NHS for having put me on the road to recovery whilst protecting me from Covid. I've had a lesson in appreciating my ‘home comforts’ and big telly, but, most of all, I'm grateful to the porters, who, with their cheeriness, humanity, and ‘wheely’ chairs it brought me the closest possible thing to the joys of Netflix!”
An NHS representative responded: “Patient feedback on our services is vital in continuing to improve how we deliver the best possible care to our patients. During every patient interaction, the role of hospital portering is to be polite, professional and caring. This helps to reassure and puts the patient at ease during each patient journey.” --- Disclaimer: The views and opinions provided are that of The Secret Patient and not of Global View or MyPorter. The Secret Patient (Joanna) is a real person and was in hospital for real reasons (which are not mentioned due to confidentiality). Global View/MyPorter did not, or would not compromise health and safety during a pandemic or at any other time by placing a member of the public into hospital. Global View/MyPorter were approached by The Secret Patient after their discharge from hospital.
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