JOBS completed by porters make them seen as the “backbone” of Salisbury District Hospital.

As part of a weekly feature exploring Salisbury’s hospital, the Journal met with members of the porter and housekeeping team this week to find out what goes on in their line of work.

It is a porter’s role to move patients and equipment between various departments across the hospital, resulting in walking around 10 miles a day and interacting with a wide range of patients and facilities.

Without porters constantly on site completing jobs, there would be less flow between departments and a lot of tasks considered behind the scenes would be left incomplete, including cleaning, transferring medical supplies and acting as a runner for doctors and nurses.

In just one month the porters will transfer 6,000 patients, around 350 units of blood and 5,000 boxes of medical notes.

Additionally the porters offer a postal service for patients, in which more than 27,000 items are dealt with monthly.

Lynda Viney, deputy head of housekeeping and portering, said: “We are described as the backbone of the trust, and we supply a 24/7 service.

“If you want something you go to a porter, they are the first port of call for anybody.

"It’s good to know you are part of a team making such a difference for this trust.”

Head of housekeeping and portering, Amanda Urch said portering is an “essential service” inside the hospital with a “family feeling”, adding: “The hospital would come to a standstill [without porters].

"You never know who is going to walk through the door and no two days are the same.”

“We are very proud of the team and everything they do, and how they always go that extra mile but remain professional, friendly and 100 per cent here for patients,” Lynda added.

Finally, porters are there to look after patients when being transported across the hospital.

Mark Beardsall, who has worked as a porter since 2017, described the role as an “integral part of making the hospital run”, adding: “The hospital is like a body, and each department is an organ, so if one thing starts to fail then the rest will suffer.

“When working with patients you can tell straight away if they’re nervous or want someone to talk to, and we can briefly offer that support and be there as a friend.”

The porter team is made up of 21 members of staff, and 12 of them have worked as porters in the hospital for more than 20 years.

With such a low staff turnover the team has around 500 years of experience in the portering industry between them.

When asked what makes people want to stay in the portering industry, Mark said: “The sense of community here is just really nice, it’s a great place to work.”

Lynda added: “We’re doing it for the hospital, this place makes you want to help.”