Estates team looks to tackle skills shortages

Concerned that engineering skills gaps, compounded by difficulties in attracting skilled tradespeople, will leave the Trust’s Estates team poorly equipped and insufficiently skilled to meet the challenge of keeping a large acute hospital running efficiently over coming years, the management team within the Estates Maintenance Department at the University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust has introduced a Workforce Development Programme to tackle existing skills gaps, bring in and retain able and enthusiastic new recruits, and ensure strong succession planning. HEJ editor, Jonathan Baillie, met with the Trust’s director of estates, Mark Bagnall, and head of Estates Maintenance, Paul Stafford, to find out more.

One of England’s largest NHS Trusts, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust (UHS) provides services to 1.9 million people living in Southampton and south Hampshire, plus specialist services such as neurosciences, cardiac services, and children’s intensive care, to over 3.7 million people in central southern England and the Channel Islands. Also a major centre for teaching and research =in association with the University of Southampton, UHS gained Foundation Trust status on 1 October 2011. Every year its 10,500-strong workforce treats around 150,000 inpatients and day patients, including about 50,000 emergency admissions, sees over 585,000 people at outpatient appointments, and deals with around 120,000 ‘ED’ cases.

A myriad of plant and equipment