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Hospital porter

Alternative titles for this job include

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

Average salary (a year)

£18,545 Starter

to

£21,176 Experienced

Typical hours (a week)

40 to 42 a week

You could work

evenings / weekends / bank holidays on shifts

How to become

Explore the different ways to get into this role.

How to become a hospital porter

You can get into this job through:

  • applying directly

Volunteering

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. Customer service experience can be useful.

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

Career tips

When applying for jobs, you'll be expected to show an understanding of how NHS values apply in your work.

Further information

You can find out more about becoming a hospital porter from Health Careers.

What it takes

Find out what skills you’ll use in this role.

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

Discover the day to day tasks you’ll do in this role.

What you'll do

Day-to-day tasks

In your day-to-day tasks, you may:

  • move patients, in beds or wheelchairs, between wards and departments
  • deliver clean linen to wards
  • collect waste, some of which may be hazardous
  • move furniture and medical equipment safely
  • transfer files, specimen samples and pharmacy boxes to different parts of the hospital
  • move deceased patients to the mortuary
  • deal 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

Look at progression in this role and similar opportunities.

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.

Current opportunities

Find apprenticeships, courses and jobs available near you.

Current 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

Customer Service - Level 1

  • Provider: CROYDON LONDON BOROUGH COUNCIL
  • Start date: 22 January 2022
  • Location: Not known

LEVEL 1 NCFE CUSTOMER SERVICE

  • Provider: LUMINATE EDUCATION GROUP
  • Start date: 12 September 2022
  • Location: Leeds
Find courses near you

Jobs In the United Kingdom

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