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Royal Surrey County Hospital and its partner Medirest, the healthcare arm of Compass Group UK & Ireland have been awarded the first NHS Exemplar status for outstanding portering services, which has only been recently introduced to the portfolio of Exemplar activity that NHS England award.
This acknowledgement means Medirest and Royal Surrey now has triple Exemplar status across portering, cleaning and catering.
Royal Surrey has been awarded portering Exemplar status for its leadership throughout the hospital, providing partnership working between facilities and clinical teams, as well as using a systematic and digital approach to strengthen the aims of the workforce.
The NHS Exemplar recognition acknowledges the delivery of the best-in-class service and that the team will share learnings and experiences to enable other Trusts to follow suit.
Last year, Medirest and Royal Surrey became the first hospital to receive the accreditation from NHS England for cleaning, acknowledging the early, smooth and professional implementation of the 2021 National Standards for Cleaning there. They were also awarded catering Exemplar status in 2022.
Earlier this year, Medirest’s Jack Teague was named Newcomer of the Year at the MyPortering Awards, organised in collaboration with NHS England. Teague took on a role as FM Manager for logistics within the Trust during the pandemic, when infection protocols were particularly stringent. He was acknowledged for delivering quality services across portering within the hospital and working tirelessly to maintain standards.
Phil Shelley, Chair NHS Food Review and Senior NHS Operational & Policy Manager, commented: “Royal Surrey continue to raise the bar with their achievements, providing a platform for their workforce to lead such effective change. The team have and continue to make such a difference to everyone that uses Royal Surrey County Hospital.”
Medirest has worked in partnership with Royal Surrey since 1994 and in 2014 took on the delivery of extra services including cleaning and portering, with waste and pest control added in 2021.
Russell Blake, Managing Director, Compass Group UK & Ireland – Healthcare: “Our work within Royal Surrey is a demonstration of our ambition to create meaningful partnerships that work for the specific needs of our clients and their patients, visitors and staff. This is a great example of best practice and as an Exemplar site for cleaning, catering and now portering, we are committed to sharing learnings with our clients and other hospitals.”
