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.
Hospital porter
Hospital porters move patients, equipment and medical supplies around a hospital.
Average salary (a year)
£15,500 Starter
to£19,750 Experienced
Typical hours (a week)
40 to 42 a week
You could work
evenings / weekends / bank holidays on shifts
How to become a Hospital porter
You can get into this job through:
- applying directly
Volunteering and experience
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
- Being able to use a computer terminal or hand-held device may be beneficial for this job.
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.
Training opportunities
Apprenticeships In England
We can't find any apprenticeship vacancies in England for a Hospital porter right now.
The Find an apprenticeship service can help you with your search, send alerts when new apprenticeships become available and has advice on how to apply.
Courses In England
Level 2 BTEC Extended Certificate in Engineering
- Provider: Hull College
- Start date: 02 September 2019
- Location: HULL
Certificate in Engineering (QCF)
- Provider: Congleton High School
- Start date: 01 September 2019
- Location: Congleton