Who we are
Name: David R. Mackay Job Title: Domestic Service Manager
Department: Domestic Services/ Domestic lead manager for NHS Highland.
1. Who am I?
My name is David and I have been working for the NHS for 3 years, Managing Domestic Services within Raigmore Hospital. The cleaning staff are an essential part of the multidisciplinary approach in improving patient staff and public safety.
I have a varied role within the department and the hospital, to ensure that full compliance is adhered to as per the Scottish National Cleaning Specification 2002.
This is a framework set up by the Scottish Government to ensure domestic cleaning is done to the correct standard in all our hospitals.
Of course my end goal is to have a safe clean hospital so all patients, visitors and staff can access the hospital and be in the sound knowledge that we have cleaned correctly and frequently.
What I try to instil is that Infection Control is everyone’s business. Domestic Services are introducing techniques that have been developed over a period of time to break the chain of infection by cleaning Raigmore Hospital and all hospitals in a safe and correctly sequence.
2. What do I do? Describe your role?
As I have stated I manage all aspects of the domestic service department, but as you would gather, I, myself can’t single handed clean and run the whole of Raigmore Hospital.
This is done by a team of fantastic individuals who daily come into work and produce a work flow which is second to none. We currently have 191 domestics with the department. Their dedication is difficult to put into words but they face the 700+ toilets which require cleaning daily within the hospital, along with the other 106,000 square metres which require scrupulous cleaning as per the national cleaning specification.
All this activity requires a degree of control and coordination and with the assistance of the charge nurses, patients and public we can achieve this as best possible.
In summary what I try to achieve within my role is a work force which is fully motivated, got the correct tools, the correct support and the ability to clean Raigmore Hospital, so patients, public and staff can use the facility with the safe knowledge that it is clean and safe.
3. Why is this role important?
Quality is what the domestic service department is all about; we aim to achieve this by not only good cleaning but by good communication.
Those who access Raigmore Hospital will, I hope, have seen our posters around the hospital, “Here to Help you” these were designed so patients, public and staff can alert us immediately to any issues within the hospital in regards to cleaning.
Whether this may be a spilt coffee in the hall or a room which isn’t to the patients satisfaction we will deal with this with the upmost urgency, myself and my staff are at hand daily to deal with all these issues. Also if you are not satisfied with the service, we as a department need to know so we can make improvements.
There is a story of when President JF Kennedy, visited NASA during the Apollo missions, he stopped to speak to a janitor and he asked him what his role was, the janitor replied “he was helping to put man on the moon”. This is our aim with domestic services, that all staff within all departments feel they are part of the hospital story, that we are all here to do the same job.
4. Most challenging part of my job?
Daily cleaning is a challenge in any area, as you can imagine within a hospital it’s a formidable task.
We as a team do our upmost to clean all aspects of the hospital, but we require people that access the building to tell us what is bad and what is good.
Dealing with these challenges is difficult, but must be done to the highest standard as this is what I would want myself if I ever had to access the hospital for treatment.
5. Most interesting part of my job?
Dealing with the public, staff and other disciplines within the hospital, as I am in charge of the whole complex, I deal with everyone, and everyone deals with me.
I have to ensure we have customer satisfaction and we have good communications with all our partners, like all relationships we do have ups and downs, but to be honest it’s mainly ups, but one cannot be complacent and we strive for quality and efficiency.
6. What qualifications do I need?
Management qualifications
Project management Qualification (PRINCE2) or equivalent
Health and safety qualifications
Cleaning qualifications
7. Who do I get in touch with if I want to find out more?
David R. Mackay, Domestic service manager.
Email: Tel: 01463 705195. Or if you’re passing come into my office for a chat.