After applying via NHS Jobs, your submitted application will be imported into our preferred Third-party recruitment system. All subsequent information regarding your application will be generated from apps.trac.jobs.

You will not be able to track the progress of your application or receive messages through the NHS Jobs website, and furthermore, as an employer, we will not be able to respond to any e-mails sent to us via the NHS Jobs website.

By applying for this post, you are agreeing to "name of trust" transferring the information contained in this application to its preferred applicant management system. If you are appointed to a post, information will also be transferred into the national NHS Electronic Staff Records system.

Job overview

An exciting opportunity has arisen for a Porter to join our team here at Ormskirk Hospital 

Porters at Ormskirk Hospital perform a variety of essential duties: 

Patient and Equipment Transportation: 

• Moving patients in beds and chairs, as well as transporting medical equipment and furniture between departments. 

Logistics and Deliveries: 

• Transferring specimens, pharmacy boxes, and other important items throughout the hospital.  Use of trust vehicles for pathology sample deliveries and other deliveries.   

Waste Collection: 

• Collecting various types of waste, including potentially hazardous materials. 

General Support: 

• Providing assistance and direction to patients and visitors. 

Main duties of the job

• The post holder will assist the Portering team leader, providing a customer-focused service.
• The post holder will deliver an efficient and effective portering service to patients, visitors, and all wards/departments.
• To ensure the patient environment is maintained to a high standard and that safe working practices are adhered to in all aspects of environmental/ hygiene management

Please ensure you have read through the attached Job Description and Person Specification before submitting your application. 

Working for our organisation

Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust serves a population of over 600,000 with a workforce of over 9000 dedicated and skilled staff across 21 sites.

We strongly believe that the communities we serve should all have access to Five Star Patient Care.

Our Services:

Acute Care

Providing emergency and maternity services at Whiston, Southport and Ormskirk hospitals, and medical and surgical specialities across all our sites.

Primary Care

Providing primary care services at Marshalls Cross Medical Centre, situated in St Helens Hospital.

Community Services

Providing adult community services for St Helens and a wheelchair service in Chorley, South Ribble, and West Lancashire. Our inpatient unit at Newton Community Hospital is where patients needing acute hospital beds can continue rehabilitation, freeing up space for more unwell patients. We also provide urgent care at our Urgent Treatment Centre located in St Helens town centre.

Specialist Regional Services

We provide the Mersey Regional Burns & Plastic Surgery Unit at Whiston Hospital and the Spinal Injuries Unit at Southport Hospital to more than 4 million people across the whole of Merseyside, West Lancashire, Cheshire, the Isle of Man and North Wales.

Achievements:

• Rated Outstanding by CQC Inspection August 2018
• Top 100 places to work in the NHS (NHS Employers & Health Service Journal)
• National Preceptorship Accreditation (2023) for Nursing & AHP Preceptorship Programme

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Financial Management

• Ensure economic use of all materials
• Ensure good practise to minimise waste

Quality Management

• Ensure good customer relations, working with patients and other groups of staff
• Maintain and improve all aspects of the service
• Participate, as appropriate, in the staff involvement group for all aspects of quality

Hygiene Management

• Ensure compliance with all legal requirements of food safety
• Maintain high standards of personal hygiene as advised by infection control

Human Resources Management

• Ensure compliance with all trust policies
• Provide guidance and assistance to new or existing members of staff
• To attend the training course as required
• To attend training courses as required and participate in annual refresher sessions in accordance with your personal development programme

Operational Duties

• The collection of refuse, including clinical, domestic, confidential, special and recyclable waste from wards and departments, as and when required
• The brushing of all hospital entrances to ensure high standards
• To maintain a safe and secure environment for staff, patients and visitors, including regular security inspections and attendance at security incidents. To respond in the event of the activation of the fire alarm system
• Issuing of keys
• Safe patient movement (including unescorted x-ray and ECG patients)
• Movement of case notes in line with the trust policy regarding confidentiality and data protection
• The collection of soiled linen and the distribution of clean linen
• The movement of furniture and equipment in wards and offices when required
• Delivery of meals, stores and provisions to wards by means of using road vehicles, both electric and fuel-powered means
• To carry out daily safety checks on meals delivery vehicles
• To safely collect and transport blood and specimens to the labs
• Transport blood to and from pathology and theatre
• Assisting with the transfer of bodies from wards to the mortuary (ODGH only to arrange and liaise with relatives who may request to view the bodies. To prepare the bodies for viewing and identification. SDGH to open the mortuary out of hours for undertakers)
• Storekeeping, including storage and stock rotation
• Postal delivery/collection as required
• Medical gas checking and replacement
• Car Parking duties (includes issuing car park tokens)
• To comply with pharmacy work procedures as required

Person specification

Qualifications

Essential criteria

• Basic Numeracy & Literacy

Desirable criteria

• Basic Food Hygiene Qualification

Knowledge & Experience

Essential criteria

• Previous customer service experience

Desirable criteria

• Previous experience in the NHS or hospitality industry
• Manual handling experience

Skills

Essential criteria

• Customer care skills
• Ability to prioritise
• Team Player
• Empathy

Desirable criteria

• Ability to instruct other less qualified staff or students

Other

Essential criteria

• Flexible approach to work duties
• Ability to work under pressure
• Good personal hygiene standards within the working environment
• Varied shift patterns over 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
• Weekend and bank holiday working
• Able to drive

Thank you for considering an application to work for Mersey West Lancashire NHS Trust.  MWL is an exciting and forward-thinking NHS Trust that is one of the best places to work in England.

Given that we sometimes receive a high volume of applications to work for us, please be aware that we may close a vacancy earlier than stated should a sufficient number of applications be received from which a shortlist can be confirmed.  Therefore, you are advised to apply at your earliest convenience.

The Trust may contact you during the recruitment process for your feedback on your experience.  We always aim for continuous improvement in our practice.

Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion

We actively cultivate a professional environment of fairness, equality, dignity, and respect for all individuals. We welcome individuals from all backgrounds and value the unique skills, perspective and experience you bring.

We are grounded in the belief that diversity enhances our collective strength, fostering innovation and excellence within our workforce.

We welcome all applications irrespective of people’s race, disability, gender, sexual orientation, religion/belief, age, gender identity, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy/maternity and in particular those from under- represented groups.

 As a Disability Confident Leader, we commit to offering an interview to all disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

If you are having difficulty completing an online application, or require any disability reasonable adjustments to the application process, please contact Recruitment@merseywestlancs.nhs.uk

We also commit to offering an interview to all armed forces veterans who meet the minimum criteria for the job (the essential criteria) listed in the personal specification. If you wish to apply under this Guaranteed Interview Scheme, please indicate this on the online application form.

The Trust operates anonymous shortlisting where no personal information about you, including your name or personal details are shared with the recruiting manager.

No equality information is shared at any time during the recruitment process with the recruiting manager or other people involved in the decision-making process.

The equality monitoring information you provide is used in the following situations: to review our recruitment practices; where a job is limited to a specific person to verify their eligibility to apply; and to offer disability reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process.

Certificate of Sponsorship

Applications from job seekers who require current Skilled worker sponsorship to work in the UK are welcome and will be considered alongside all other applications. For further information, visit the UK Visas and Immigration website (Opens in a new tab).

 From 6 April 2017, skilled worker applicants applying for entry clearance into the UK have had to present a criminal record certificate from each country they have resided continuously or cumulatively for 12 months or more in the past 10 years. Adult dependants (over 18 years old) are also subject to this requirement. Guidance can be found here: Criminal records checks for overseas applicants (Opens in a new tab)

Following the recent update on UK immigration policy for those on a Health and Care Visa or Skilled Worker Visa, please click here to check your eligibility before applying for this post, as we may be unable to provide sponsorship.

eVisa Update  For successful candidates on selected work and study visa routes, who have completed and paid for their applications, will no longer receive a visa vignette in their passport as evidence of their permission to enter the UK. Instead, you will be issued with an eVisa only, which is accessed by creating a UKVI account. Before travelling to the UK, we advise applicants to:

• Create a UKVI account
• Link their current passport
• Access their eVisa straightaway to check all details. Incorrect information should be reported as soon as possible using the following link: https://www.gov.uk/report-error-evisa
• Understand how to generate an eVisa share code

Disclosure and Barring Service Check 

If this post is subject to the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act (Exceptions Order) 1975, it will be necessary for a submission for Disclosure to be made to the Disclosure and Barring Service (formerly known as CRB) to check for any previous criminal convictions.

 Please note that if applicable, applicants will be required to pay for their DBS check. Costs are deducted from salary following appointment.

If you have not already done so, you are therefore encouraged to enrol for the DBS Update Service to which a small annual fee of £13 per year applies. 

Flexible Working

We actively support flexible working patterns throughout MWL.  Changes  made to the NHS Terms and Conditions of Service Handbook mean that:

• All employees have the right to request flexible working from day one of employment.
• There is no limit on the number of requests they can make.
•  Employees have the right to make requests and have them considered, regardless of the reason.

At Mersey and West Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, we will consider requests for flexible working.  We would also encourage you to also discuss flexible working options at interview stage.

Working for Team MWL

Staff recognition is especially important to us; as well as performance reviews and appraisals, we recognise staff through Employee of the Month. Along with supporting you to achieve your career goals, we offer a generous pension scheme, unsocial hours payments (where applicable), 27 days annual leave on commencement (pro rata) and access to a range of NHS discounts. Our Staff Health and Wellbeing programme offers a variety of services.

The Trust is a non-smoking environment across all our sites. Failure to follow this rule could lead to disciplinary action. For more information, see the Smoke Free NHS website. 

You must ensure that your application, including personal statements and behaviour examples, is truthful and factually accurate.  Please note that plagiarism can include presenting the ideas and experience of others, or those generated by artificial intelligence, as your own.

The Trust will not accept applications which are found to be AI-generated and will check all applications against AI detection software. 

Additional Information

Before applying, we encourage you to review the Trust's Values and Behaviours, which are We are KIND, We are OPEN, We are INCLUSIVE, which can be found here.

An applicant guide to help and support you with your application and what to expect during your recruitment journey can be accessed in the supporting documents.

Good luck with your application. We hope to welcome you to Team MWL very soon.