Hospital porter

Hospital porters move patients, equipment and medical supplies around a hospital.

Salary range: £16,652 to £20,795

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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:

pass enhanced background checks

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.