NHS Grampian is one of the last health boards in Scotland to benefit from an in-house sewing room team, who are now setting a leading example of how others could make do and mend, saving huge amounts of energy and money.
The health board’s laundry service quality checks around 145,000 items of bedding, towels, curtains and other things coming through the laundry every week, including 35,000 sets of scrubs! When hundreds of these fail a quality check, they are sent to the sewing room to work out if they can be repaired or repurposed.
The talented tailors who repair as much as they can and repurpose the rest have now been presented with a Green Star Award for their efforts to reduce the health board’s impact on the environment.
They use techniques like heat sealing small holes in sheets and bedding, sewing buttons back onto pyjamas or fixing pockets and hems. They re-use tiers for repairs and no part of items are condemned without first trying to fix or re-purpose them. The five-strong sewing team even tear old sheets into strips to wrap bundles of new uniforms into batches for collection. They make drain bags for chemo patients and chop up materials to make rags for use by other estates teams. If services are facing a costly bill to replace specialist clothing or covers, materials are sent to the sewing team to see if they can fix them first. The team even repair the linen skips used all over the organisation in the movement of clean and dirty linen.
Olivia Finnie, Administration Assistant; Maureen Kaczmarek, Supervisor; Lynn Christie, Linen Services Manager; Lesley Hall, Sewing Assistant; Angela Ross, Supervisor; and Gavin Payne, General Manager Facilities & Estates, who presented the team with their award
Linen services manager, Lynn Christie explained: “We have an incredibly busy workshop and we’re super proud of the team who I’d say are the backbone of the organisation. Services reach out to us regularly to help them and the sewing team could be fixing specialist suits for burns patients one day to adjusting decontamination suits the next.
“There’s a lot of hidden expertise, and skills that aren’t so easy to come by these days, that deserves recognition and we are so pleased to accept this award. Having a modern apprentice within the team would be a good way to make sure we retain the skills and this is something we are looking into.”
The team also fit all staff with uniforms, tailoring leg length to the individual and ensuring the correct fit. More than 2,000 new and existing staff all across NHS Grampian are fitted by the sewing team every year. They are so highly regarded they are currently providing uniforms for all international recruits to health boards across the North of Scotland too.
Lynn added: “Uniform provision is a complex job ensuring all staff are in correct denomination of job according to NHS Scotland national uniform policy. Everyone now has a card so we can keep track and there’s traceability for every single staff member. This helps to keep waste to a minimum too, also reducing service spend.”
Gavin Payne, general manager of facilities and estates, visited the team to see the weekly challenge they take on first-hand. He said: “The volume of material the team gets through is mind-blowing. They’re doing an incredible range of work to promote re-use, repair and recycle, and we’re keen to share their mindful approach with other teams. They are well-deserving recipients of the Green Star Award. Well done, folks!”