This week is National Healthcare Estates & Facilities Day, 19 June, and is a nation-wide celebration of the fantastic work our estates and facilities teams do.

With nearly 1,000 Estates and Facilities staff in our Trust - and more than 250,000 throughout the country - it’s a day to thank them for their hard work in supporting our patients and making the Trust safe, clean and hospitable for our staff too.  

From portering to switchboard, housekeeping to medical equipment services, catering to estates maintenance, security to capital projects, sterilisation and decontamination to sustainability, it’s a very broad sector.   

Ian Greggor, Director of Estates & Facilities, says; "Our housekeepers and hospital sterilisation and decontamination unit (HSDU) teams keep our equipment and environment clean in our wards, theatres and public areas, while our highly technical electronics and medical engineering (EME) technicians maintain over 41,000 devices – including over 3,000 different models.   

"Our catering teams provide thousands of meals every day, for both staff and patients - many of whom have very particular needs. We have teams who look after our buildings and infrastructure (estate maintenance) 24/7 while capital projects colleagues are creating the next generation of facilities such as our new diagnostic and inpatient unit at Frimley.   

"Our security teams keep staff and patients safe on-site, and we have many specialists who oversee crucial areas such as sustainability, the millions we spent on contracts every year, and those acquiring, managing and maintaining tour community facilities. Our portering team completes over 380,000 jobs a year, from patients to equipment, and our wonderful switchboard staff deal with over 635,000 calls a year. While Estates and Facilities does not have the profile of others, we do a considerable amount, working in tandem with our healthcare professionals to provide the direct and non-direct care and support that our patients expect from the Trust.  

"Like every other part of Frimley Health, we have our challenges. It is the mark of our staff that they seek to provide the best possible service they can, learn from issues, and continue to plan to achieve high standards each and every day. The work they accomplish, with so few, is truly incredible, and so it is good to be able to raise awareness of what they do, highlight their successes and celebrate all they have achieved in the last 12 months."