Hospital porter

Hospital porters move patients, equipment and medical supplies around a hospital.
Salary range: £16,652 to £20,795
How to become a hospital porter
You can get into this job through:
- applying directly
Volunteering and experience
You may find it useful to get voluntary experience in a hospital or a care home.
You can contact the voluntary services co-ordinator or manager at your local NHS trust for more details.
Direct application
You can apply directly to get into this job. Work experience in a healthcare setting will be useful though not essential.
You’ll normally need a good standard of literacy and numeracy. Some employers may ask for GCSEs in English and maths, or equivalent qualifications.
It might help if you have a manual handling or health and safety certificate, although your employer will train you on these when you start.
More information
Further information
You can find out more about becoming a hospital porter from Health Careers.
What it takes
Skills and knowledge
You’ll need:
- sensitivity and understanding
- patience and the ability to remain calm in stressful situations
- the ability to accept criticism and work well under pressure
- customer service skills
- the ability to work well with others
- to enjoy working with other people
- excellent verbal communication skills
- thinking and reasoning skills
- to be able to carry out basic tasks on a computer or hand-held device
Restrictions and requirements
You’ll need to:
What you’ll do
Day-to-day tasks
Your day-to-day tasks may include:
- moving patients, in beds or wheelchairs, between wards and departments
- delivering clean linen to wards
- collecting waste, some of which may be hazardous
- moving furniture and medical equipment safely
- transferring files, specimen samples and pharmacy boxes to different parts of the hospital
- moving deceased patients to the mortuary
- dealing with post and parcels
Working environment
You could work in an NHS or private hospital.
You may need to wear a uniform.
Career path and progression
With experience, you could progress to team leader or supervisor. You may need to have, or be working towards, qualifications in supervision and management.
You could also move into a related role like the ambulance service, healthcare assistant work, or nursing.
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