RESPONSIBILITIESA porter’s daily tasks can include:
- Giving meals to patients
- Moving hospital furniture and electrical equipment
- Transporting clinical waste and dangerous materials
- Taking patients from their ward to consultations and back again
- Taking supplies to wards
- Distributing post throughout the hospital
- Delivering patients’ notes to the correct place at the correct time
- Taking dead bodies from operating theatres and wards to the mortuary
- Taking samples to laboratories
- Moving specialist apparatus around the hospital
In some hospitals tasks will include:
- Working on reception
- Supporting security staff
- Overseeing activities in the hospital car park
- Dealing with dirty linen and cleaning wards (there is often a separate team dedicated to doing this, to avoid cross-infection)
QUALIFICATIONSNo formal qualifications are required to become a hospital porter, but recruitment tests involve an interview, a medical examination and sometimes a fitness test. English Language GCSE at grade C or above may help, as hospital porters have to be proficient at reading and writing. Another relevant qualification is the Diploma in Society, Health and Development aimed at 14-19 year olds. Students can gain concurrently literacy and numeracy skills, health sector knowledge, and also complete work experience placements. Some NHS trusts run relevant apprenticeship schemes in health and social care, which may help you learn more about the job and the health sector generally. See the National Apprenticeship Service website for more information. To explore the range of health sector courses available visit Skills for Health
Email full CV's to mcg@webmail.co.za
