NMH

NMH | 2024 212 Support Services a 24-hour basis. Patient-centred services involve direct engagement with our patients, staff and visitors in terms of patient transportation, communication and general assistance. The facility- based services undertaken by Portering Services include daily operational tasks such as waste disposal, curtain hygiene maintenance, transportation of furniture and equipment, exchanges of medical gas cylinders and groundskeeping. The Department has continued to support education and training programmes including mandatory training when required, as well as developing a new essential 'Emergency Skills Training' course in conjunction with the Labour and Birthing Unit. The Department is represented on several committees such as Manual Handling Trainers, Communications Group and Green Committee. The Portering Services Department in conjunction with the Postnatal CMM3 and our suppliers Coffey Healthcare, worked closely with the arrival of new upgraded electrical beds. We are currently 90% of the way through this programme. I would like to thank all Portering staff for their contribution and professionalism during this period. We would like to wish our colleague Derek Doody a Happy Retirement after years of services at The National Maternity Hospital. As Hospital services continue to expand, it is expected that Portering Services Department meet the demand and continue to provide the highest standards. Claudiu Zselemi, Portering Services Manager. Switch/Reception Reception / Switch is based in 65/66 Lower Mount St. in a very busy building, where on any given day, there could be interviews, clinics, meetings, patients coming for a specific appointment. We pride ourselves on greeting each person with a welcoming smile, to be courteous and pleasant while delivering an efficient service. Always on hand to direct patients/visitors to their relevant area and of course assist new Mothers navigate the lift with their buggies, as they attend the lactation clinic. In our role as operators, each call is answered in a swift, friendly and competent manner whilst ensuring the highest level of confidentiality, compassion and empathy. As a part of being a Telephonist, we use good communication and listening skills, including having a friendly, helpful and patient manner. In our Reception area, we also have responsibility for the fire alarm system and wheelchair alarm, should any of these go off, we are responsible for contacting our Maintenance team as soon as possible. The Switch team also has responsibility for the Internal Paging System. We are happy to be of assistance to our colleagues in navigating this system. Either by explaining how they work, changing batteries or issuing a temporary pager, if their pager should be in need of repair. An emergency test call is sent out daily to ensure all emergency pagers are in perfect working order. We look forward to offering our continued support to our patients and colleagues in the coming year. Kathleen Maguire, Switch/Reception Manager. Sabrina Cleary, Hygiene Services Department.

• Cover