We caught up with Nigel Lambert, soft services manager.
Nigel has been working at Moorfields for three and a half years and has several years of experience in the NHS, working in estates and facilities departments across acute, community and mental health.
Nigel’s role includes being the trust lead and contract manager for various services, including; cleaning, catering, front of house, porters, telephony, couriers, patient transport, pest control, mail room, security, waste and linen and laundry. All totalling annual expenditure of over £7.5 million!
Treat others, as you would like to be treated yourself.
Our purpose is – working together to discover, develop and deliver excellent eye care, sustainably and at scale. Can you give any examples of how you do this?
Every part of my role either directly or indirectly affects patient care, from interactions on the phone, mail sent for appointments, medication sent via courier, the cleanliness of the hospital, the greeting from security or the front of house team. Everyone across the entire soft services team have a pivotal role towards our patients experience and safety.
Every part of my role either directly or indirectly affects patient care, from interactions on the phone, mail sent for appointments, medication sent via courier, the cleanliness of the hospital, the greeting from security or the front of house team. Everyone across the entire soft services team have a pivotal role towards our patients experience and safety.
What makes you happy?
At work, walking around noticing the things I have identified, actioned and they have been completed well. My team engaging with patients and providing great services.
Outside of work I love to see and experience new things, I enjoy visiting new countries, cultures, architecture and histories. I have visited over half of the countries across the world.
This year I have been to or intend to visit Argentina, Brazil, Malta, Colombia, Egypt and Spain. Iguazu falls has been my favourite place I have seen and experienced this year. Definitely worth visiting from both the Argentinian and Brazilian sides. I can’t wait to finally visit Egypt as I’ve always found it fascinating.
How do you support our Greener NHS ambitions by working in ways which have positive social and environmental impacts, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions from travel, energy use and waste? (in your personal or work life).
I am part of the trusts sustainability group and the lead for waste, this involves achieving various targets and attending numerous national and London meetings, groups and seminars.
All of our hand towels and toilet tissue are made from recycled paper, most of our cleaning products are environmentally friendly.
We have some of the highest recycling rates across London for our domestic waste stream, generally around 76% to 80% for the City Road campus. The goal is for all sites across the trust to achieve a similar level. Future projects in the pipeline include reusable sharps bins, which will greatly improve the carbon performance of our clinical waste stream.
A sink is due to be installed into the restaurant to support staff, visitors and patients in using reusable coffee cups.
Kindness is one of our values. What does this mean to you and how do you strive for it in your everyday working life? Can you give an example of how you have been kind?
Treat others, as you would like to be treated yourself.
There was a patient looking rather disoriented. I asked if they were ok and could help them. They had been seen in a clinic and were advised to wait in the waiting area, they had got lost and were unsure where they were supposed to be. I said I would try and help them get to where they needed to be. I spoke to one of the clinic receptionists nearby and explained the situation and asked if they had time to help the patient find where they needed to be. They said yes, I then collected the patient, escorted them to the desk and advised how they were going to help them. The receptionist then took over to support.
How do you champion equity, diversity and inclusion in your current role? What difference have you made?
I like to think of the soft services team as inclusive of not just the trust employed porters and front of house staff but also our service providers; security, catering and cleaners.
All Medirest staff now have trust NHS email addresses, so they can stay informed of what’s going on and are feeling included.