Hospital portering service goes electronic

The facilities team at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole NHS Foundation Trust has invested £80,000 in new technology to improve its service.

The new way of working uses the Trust’s existing WebV system, a bespoke computer system developed at the Trust primarily as a patient and bed management tool.

Each ward has a touch screen at the nursing station where a range of professionals including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and physiotherapists can upload and access patient details and observations.

Currently staff who require portering services have to request them by phone but soon staff will be able to do it all online.

Each porter is being given a specially adapted mobile phone. When staff on the wards need to request a porter they will do so via the WebV screen on their ward. The new system can see which porters are busy and which are free and sends a notification to the porters phone of the job so they can access the information while on the move.

Sally Yates, logistics manager at the Trust, said: “This investment will improve our portering service making it more efficient and effective. It will also free up a member of staff at each site who currently takes the phone calls, enabling them to spend more time on the shop floor.”

The service is currently in use at Grimsby’s Diana, Princess of Wales Hospital and will soon be rolled out to Scunthorpe and Goole hospitals.