A Day in the Life of the Children’s Hospital Linen Room team | News

A Day in the Life of the Children’s Hospital Linen Room team

Photo of the Linen Team Who are the Linen team?

We are a small team situated on the ground floor of the Children’s Hospital and are part of the Vital Services team. We have a dual purpose: a responsibility to keep all linen clean and to prevent dirty linen from contaminating patients, staff and the environment. Our team has a vast amount of experience ranging from three months to 22 years working for the Trust.

How would the team describe a typical day at work?

Each day begins at 7am distributing clean, reusable and fresh laundered linen stock. Items are delivered in cages under disposable covers to prevent outside contamination. One full cage restocks three to four wards/theatre linen cupboards depending on usage from the previous day/night. Once items are delivered, two team members retrace their steps to collect soiled linen. The stocking of cages in preparation for the next day takes place in the linen department but at planned times because space is limited. During the latter part of the day, one member will revisit the wards to collect any further soiled linen. All is packed into cages and taken out to the loading bay for pick-up by our external contractor.

What are the different tasks that take up most of the team’s time?

The largest part of the day is distributing and collecting linen and preparing for the following day. Our laundry service-provider delivers on average: 670 scrubs sets, 2,660 bed linen pieces, 110 patient gowns and 725 towels to site Monday to Thursday with double on Fridays to cover the weekend, so there’s a lot to sort out! We have daily and weekly curtain change schedules to comply with NHS guidelines of six-monthly changes, but we do also change them after an outbreak, i.e. a case of norovirus. All changes are in agreement with the ward to ensure privacy at all times for patients and their families.

Describe the pace at which the team works – what do they enjoy most about their work?

We quietly ensure departments are always stocked with clean bedding and towels for patients and scrubs for clinical staff whilst ensuring that all procedures are carefully followed to reduce the risk of infection. Team members have set roles and planned routes around the hospital and particularly enjoy the interaction with ward staff and patients.

What skills does the team need to manage the work successfully?

The team has to be organised as well as physically fit for lifting, packing items and moving cages for delivery and collection. They must also be very health and safety aware of their environment at all times. They need to be customer-focused, polite and able to work as part of a team that supports each other along with taking responsibility for their own work.

You can find out more about the work of our teams across BWC in this months edition of talkBWC. 

We have placed cookies on your computer to help make this website better. You can at any time read our cookie policy. Otherwise, we will assume that you're OK to continue.

Please choose a setting: