40 years' service kind of an accident

Friday, 18 March 2011, 9:21 am
Press Release: Waikato District Health Board

Working as an attendant at Waikato Hospital was only ever meant to be a short-term solution for 62-year-old John Osborne, but 40 years later, he's still there.

"I was only supposed to be up here for a couple of months while my mate saved up enough money so we could both move over to Australia. As it turns out, he never quite saved up enough and I'm still here," he laughs.

Likewise, his colleague Dave Phelps (59) merely started out as a 19-year-old looking for a change of scene but certainly didn't expect to become part of the furniture - which he undoubtedly has after also spending 40 years in the job.

In fact, it was Dave's mother Nancy who ran the hospital shop at the time who got her son the job when she asked then attendants' manager and now Building Programme Office project manager Brendan Hague, if there was any work going.

There was - and now John, right, and Dave, left, are Waikato Hospital's current longest serving attendants celebrating 40 years of service in April and October this year, respectively.

Waikato Hospital employs 120 attendants (also known as orderlies) who have a variety of roles from delivering mail, to transferring patients.

Some are dedicated to specific areas such as x-ray, theatres and the lab, while others work in the main attendants' pool - as is the case for John, Dave works from the Mailroom.

Both men work full-time and Dave's role is even more specific with the mail run being his sole job over the past few years.

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While both men have only ever held attendant's positions at Waikato Hospital, their jobs have changed many times over the past 40 years.

When the pair started in 1971, attendants wore a collar and tie and white coats; they were far greater in number, patients were transferred on trolleys, and the duties of an attendant were much more varied.

"Security was a big part of our jobs in those days," tells Dave.

"Back then there weren't special facilities for dementia patients and the like, so we spent a lot of time chasing patients up and down corridors who would get confused and try to leave the hospital at every opportunity."

Now of course, Waikato Hospital has its own busy, dedicated security team.

"We used to do a lot more up in the wards as well," says John.

"I was a bath attendant for some years, which meant bathing patients but also doing all the rubbish and laundry on the wards - that job is now split between health care assistants, but the attendants continue to undertake the rubbish and laundry services.

"Same with the two-hourly patient turns for very ill patients - they used to be done by the 'bath' attendants, during the day, but now by the main pool of attendants."

The pair remember the days of the 'hospital ambulances' that transported patients from the rescue helicopter and to all the outlying wards such as maternity, which were separate to the main hospital, and the bike rider who delivered all the external mail but became a Health and Safety issue after coming off one too many times.

They remember relieving the gatekeeper, crashing the doctors' parties over at Lindisfarne (which was recently demolished and is the proposed site for the impending Rehabilitation Hub) and have worn four different styles of uniforms over the years.

John and Dave have also outlasted a fair few bosses in their time, including current staff Brendan Hague and Emergency Management coordinator Trevor Ecclestone who are both still working in the organisation.

And of course, they have had to navigate their way around a constantly changing campus over the past five years.

"I think everyone finds the campus changes challenging to deal with, but it will be great when it's all done. There's certainly a lot more miles to walk now than there used to be," says John.

The pair agrees that while the number of duties is less, the work of an attendant has stepped up a notch in the intensity of a fast paced world.

"Everyone wants their jobs done now, which is just a sign of the times really. I think people are just busier than they used to be."

So what has kept these two in the job so long?

Those same busy people.

"People are so interesting and we meet plenty of them every day," said Dave.

"That's the main reason we stay in this job. We enjoy the people."

Waikato District Health Board

Healthy People. Excellent Care

Waikato District Health Board (DHB) employs over 6500 people and plans, funds and provides hospital and health services to more than 391,770 people in a region covering eight per cent of New Zealand.