Greg Wilson is a Medical Engineering Technician here at QE Facilities and has been working here for 2 and a half years. He explains what his role entails.
“A typical day for me includes repairing faulty medical devices in the workshop, visiting wards and departments to undertake planned maintenance or reacting to whatever issues arise within the hospital on that day. Medical Engineering isn’t just servicing and repairing medical equipment though, we often participate in general problem solving for the hospital. Because of the nature of our work we often notice, or are informed by staff, that sometimes things aren’t quite right and we provide a service to help bridge that gap – whether it be equipment or service related, we can often provide assistance.
There are 18 of us in total spread across 3 sub-sections of Medical Engineering: Medical Engineering, Medical Devices Training and The Medical Equipment Library. In Medical Engineering, we are comprised of a team of 6 Medical Engineering Technicians who work on everything from vital signs monitors to anaesthetics; 2 Support Technicians who usually deal with thermometry, suction & flow devices and beds, couches and plinths; 2 Apprentice Medical Engineering Technicians who assist with, pretty-much, everything across the department; and 3 Managers who are each responsible for a different aspect of running the department.
The Medical Devices Training Department consists of 2 members who create and facilitate online learning and face-to-face user training with clinical staff regarding their medical devices.
The Medical Equipment Library is a team of 3 who provide loan medical devices to departments and wards in the hospital when they need them. They also provide a decontamination service for these medical devices, ensuring that when staff members request a device they are supplied with a clean and compliant one.
I feel that my job is very rewarding as we solve a plethora of issues within the hospital, not just involving medical devices, and provide a necessary service for staff which has a knock-on effect to the service they provide for patients.
All Medical Engineering Technicians work autonomously and I believe it is through this style of work that we are able to discover and rectify a lot of issues that we come across, opposed to just doing the work we’re assigned. This is probably the aspect of my job that I enjoy the most – I have the freedom to do my job to the standard that I desire which allows me to provide a high level of service to colleagues and staff when I need to, not just when I’m tasked to.”
We asked, Is there anything you want readers to know that they might not necessarily know about your role?
“Ultimately, we are here to provide a service to ensure that clinical staff are using equipment that is not only safe to be used on a patient, but is safe for them to use. Staff will often put-up with faulty, old or damaged equipment not realising we can provide a solution for them. I’d like staff to know that they do not have to keep using equipment they aren’t happy with, they can approach us and 9/10 times we can provide assistance."
·Finally, what would you say to someone considering a career in your role?
"I’d say apply! We are very behind-the-scenes and because of this I don’t believe a lot of people are even aware this role exists. It’s a great role for anyone who likes complex problem solving, lateral thinking, tinkering with electronics, on-the-job learning and providing a service."